The Twelve Days of Christmas
by chelsea0223
Summary: Hermione can't afford the rent of her flat anymore, so there's only one place to go while she searches for a new home: 12 Grimmauld Place, the home for the homeless people who were part of the order. Turns out, there's already someone living there. See how Remus and Hermione go from friends to lovers in only twelve short days. Lots of fluff and happiness for Christmas :D
1. The First Day of Christmas

**AN: Hey everyone! So I decided to do a Christmas fic, but since the holidays (as well as all my school due dates) seem to be coming so fast, this one might drag on into the holidays a little past Christmas. The updating will most likely be kind of sporadic as well. So anyways, this whole story is AU where Tonks doesn't survive, but literally everyone else does (I think...it might change later so we'll just wait and see). The first few chapters will be really fluffy and suitable to all readers, but I'm thinking the later chapters will be of a more mature rating. We'll see how this goes. Enjoy!**

Hermione was off work at the Ministry until the new year due to renovations in her department of the Ministry, so she was expecting to have a nice, relaxing Christmas holiday filled with ten-hour marathons of reading every single day—that was, until she found out that Lavender was moving out of the flat that they shared so she could move in with her boyfriend. Hermione knew that she wouldn't be able to afford the rent all by herself, and so there was only one place she could go: 12 Grimmauld Place.

Since after the war ended, Grimmauld Place had become a sort of safe house for anyone who had nowhere else to go. Sirius had decided to lend the house to anyone who needed it since he no longer wanted to have anything to do with it, and so it was a sort of backup plan for anyone in the Order who needed a place to stay. The first couple of years after the war were pretty hectic for everyone looking for a career; the Ministry was in recovery mode, Diagon Alley was still in shambles, and there weren't nearly enough teaching jobs to accommodate every jobless wizard and witch. Hermione had had to live there for a short period of time along with Sirius and Harry while they all searched for employment just after the war ended.

Now, Hermione had nowhere else to go but there. She wondered if there was anyone actually living there currently. Sirius had moved out because, to quote him, "that place gives me the willies…and not in a good way." To everyone's utter discomfort, Sirius' playboy tendencies had multiplied exponentially since the war had ended. One night stands had seemingly become a part of Sirius' daily routine recently—only now he apparently wasn't solely interested in females. Hermione hadn't been surprised in the least.

Hermione packed up her belongings that day so she could move into Grimmauld Place, deciding it was best to get out of the flat as soon as possible. She apparated with her bags onto the front step and decided to knock on the door, not wanting to scare anyone living there. She was just about to open the door herself when no one answered the door, but then was shocked when a sleep-mussed, pyjama-clad Remus Lupin opened the door for her. He seemed to snap awake when he realized who it was.

"Hermione! How are you? I haven't seen you since…since…"

"The Christmas party last year," she supplied helpfully.

"Merlin, has it really been that long? So what are you doing here? Oh, are you moving in?" he asked, noting the suitcase and bags she was carrying.

"Yes—if that's alright with you, that is," she blushed.

"Of course it is! Who would I be to refuse someone in a similar position to mine?" He stepped aside and gestured for her to enter.

Grimmauld Place was still as dark and dreary as Hermione remembered, though maybe slightly cleaner. The portrait of Sirius' mother still hung in the entranceway, though Hermione and Sirius had at long last managed to find a spell to permanently subdue her during her previous stay.

"Is anyone else living here?" she asked Remus as he closed the door.

"No, it's just me."

They were silent for a moment, both searching for something to say. Hermione was the one to break the silence, though it was nothing brilliant.

"I guess I'll just…go unpack my stuff," she muttered awkwardly.

"Yeah…sure thing," he replied, equally as awkward.

Why was it always so hard to talk to someone with whom you used to friends so many years ago? Though on second thought, perhaps they had never _really_ been friends. They had worked together briefly for the Order of the Phoenix a few years after he had taught her at Hogwarts. Would their war strategy conversations count as conversations between friends? They had always been friendly towards one another, but that didn't necessarily mean that they were _friends_ …

Hermione made quick work of unpacking in the room that had been hers last time, at the opposite end of the hall from Remus' room. She decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in her bedroom reading. At about seven o'clock, Hermione received a knock on her door. Remus popped his head in the door.

"I've just made some chicken penne and was wondering if you wanted any," he offered with a friendly smile.

"Oh, that sounds wonderful! Thanks a lot, Prof—ah damn, I mean Remus," she cursed, accidentally returning to her habit of calling him Professor as she had done all those years ago.

Remus laughed, the awkwardness between them slowly but surely diffusing. "It's been how many years, and you're still calling me Professor? Honestly Hermione, that's kind of sad. I was your Professor for a single year and your friend for a decade. My name is Remus, so use it," he chuckled teasingly. So they _were_ friends!

"I'm sorry, _Remus,_ but I can't help but be respectful to adults. It's how I was raised," she replied sassily, sliding a bookmark into the massive volume titled _Goblin Rebellions in Europe—17th Century_ that she had been reading reading.

He barked a laugh. "Hermione, you do realize that you are an adult as well, right?" he pointed out with an eyebrow quirked in amusement as they made their way down the stairs to the kitchen.

"You don't say? I wonder when that happened…" she shot back sarcastically.

Remus handed her a plate, and they both began serving themselves some heavenly-smelling chicken penne with cheesy alfredo sauce. "What I _mean to say,_ " he laughed, "is that adults are now your peers, so you don't always need to treat them so formally, especially when you know each other as well as we do. You don't go around calling Sirius 'Mr. Black', so why should you call me 'Professor Lupin'?"

"Perhaps because Sirius was never my Professor" Hermione pointed out with a laugh, seating herself across the table from Remus so they could continue their conversation. Remus chuckled his rumbly chuckle once again, and something about it was very pleasant to Hermione. She liked the sound of his laughter.

"You're never going to admit defeat, are you?" he asked amusedly.

"What else would one expect from a debate between two highly logical Gryffindors?"

"Touché."

Hermione tried a bite of the food, and it warmed her belly with the familiarity of home-cooked meals. She hadn't had one of those in a while, what with her and Lavender both being atrocious cooks. Hermione couldn't stop the groan of bliss from passing through her lips. Remus raised his eyebrows in amusement while shovelling some of his divine food into his own mouth.

"I'm sorry. It's just that this is positively delicious! I'm not great in the kitchen, so I haven't had such high-quality home-cooked meals since the last time I ate at the Weasleys' house, which was months ago."

"Wow, I'm truly shocked by that. I didn't realize that Hermione Granger was _actually_ flawed like the rest of us mere mortals," he teased.

"Oh shut up! I am nowhere near perfect at everything. I'm positively useless when it comes to the arts and athletics," Hermione ranted hotly, tired of people thinking she was a saint or something.

" _And_ you're rubbish at cooking," Remus added drily.

"Yes, that too," she muttered furiously.

They were quiet for a moment before both bursting with laughter. Hermione didn't even know what was so funny, but Remus was laughing hard, which made her laugh harder, making him laugh harder, and so on. It was another moment before either one of them could manage to speak.

"Wait, weren't you top in your potions class, though?" Remus asked bemusedly.

"Yes, I was. What relevance does that have to anything?" she asked defensively, predicting the relentless teasing she would suffer through for it.

"But potions is so much more difficult than cooking! How on earth—?"

"Because potions recipes are specific about every detail. They leave nothing to the imagination. I have scoured bookstores for a cookbook that is specific about _everything_ , and I haven't ever found one. They're all like 'turn the stove on to medium heat' or 'bake for 15-20 minutes'. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW LONG IS TOO LONG IF THE INSTRUCTIONS AREN'T SPECIFIC ABOUT IT?!"

Remus was giggling—actually giggling—at Hermione's ranting. She huffed in indignation, crossed her arms, and glared at him with narrowed eyes. That just made him laugh harder.

"I don't see what's so funny about my suffering," she huffed.

"I'm sorry—wait, that's actually a lie. I'm really not sorry at all. This is just too much! You must be the most meticulous person I know, Hermione, and that's saying something because I can be quite meticulous."

"I'm choosing to take that as a compliment" Hermione chuckled, scooping some more penne onto her fork and devouring it hungrily.

Once they had finished dinner, Remus took out a bottle of wine and poured each of them a glass. They continued talking well into the evening, refilling their glasses only every once in a while so as to not get too drunk.

"…and so that's why I need to crash here for a while. I'll start looking for a new flat after Christmas once I've made more money; I'm not getting paid very much right now because of the renovations at work and I'm going to be broke soon enough with all of my last-minute Christmas shopping," Hermione explained.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione. You're welcome to stay here as long as you want. It's nice having some company around here; it gets kind of lonely, especially around the holidays when you're _supposed_ to be surrounded by friends."

"Thanks Remus, I'm glad to have you for company as well. Lavender Brown was never really ideal company for me. The only reason I lived with her was because she keeps her space nice and clean and is often out of the house, making her really easy to live with. So anyways, how long have you been staying here?"

Remus sighed, and Hermione could sense a sort of heaviness in the sigh. She was pretty sure she knew why he was stuck here.

"Much too long. A few months perhaps? No more than three. You know how it is with me; I can never keep an employment at the same place for too long. I've just been having some trouble finding something that I haven't already done. There aren't too many career options in the wizarding world, unfortunately."

Hermione looked at him sadly. "I'm so sorry, Remus. That's awful."

"Don't worry, it's nothing new at this point. This is my life, and I'm making what I can of it" Remus shrugged.

"Maybe you can apply at the Ministry once the renovations are done? We need some more people on the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, and you're totally qualified. I'm pretty high up in the Ministry and could definitely put in a good word for you," Hermione offered.

"Could you really? That would be wonderful. Thanks a lot, Hermione" Remus smiled gratefully.

They both seemed to get lost in each other's eyes for a moment, both staring deeply at each other. Had Remus always had such beautiful eyes? They were a beautiful deep green colour. Not like Harry's green, but much darker and less noticeable. Beautiful in their own way.

Hermione snapped out of it first, blushing madly. Everything had become awkward again, like they hadn't just spent the last two hours chatting over dinner and wine. Hermione decided it was as good a time as any to excuse herself to bed for the night. Remus wished her a good night and watched as she hurried up the stairs.

Hermione closed her new bedroom door softly behind her and slumped against it. "Well that was awkward as hell," she muttered to herself. What had even happened? They had been having a nice conversation, she offered to help him get a job at the Ministry, and the boom! Awkward again.

Hermione decided not to dwell on it and focus on the positive. She had had a great time hanging with Remus. He was kind, intelligent, brave, he understood her sense of humour, not to mention quite handsome; how on earth was this man still single? Well, Hermione didn't know for sure that he was single, but still, he was quite the catch. As if she suddenly realized what she was thinking, she shook her head and mentally berated herself for thinking of Remus as anything more than friends. He was technically old enough to be her dad. And on top of that—and no matter how much Remus argued it—he was still one of her former professors. Hermione didn't want to go through being attracted to a teacher again…not after the Gilderoy Lockhart thing. She still hadn't forgiven herself for being so naïve.

No, Hermione and Remus were friends and that was it. Perhaps once she got used to that thought she would stop having those awkward moments with him. That would be a bloody miracle, what with all the uncomfortable silences they had had. Did Remus feel them as well? Well, he obviously did because he seemed just as uneasy as she was.

Hermione sat on the window ledge and stared outside. She was still trying to get used to living in London in the winter; she was used to having snow by this time of year because of how much snow Hogwarts received, but she had yet to see any snow in London with only twelve days until Christmas.

An unusually rotund bird landed on a tree across the street. Hermione squinted her eyes to try and identify it. She was surprised to find that it was a partridge, never having seen one this close to London. She smiled, watching the bird arrange its pretty brown feathers.

She knew that things would turn out alright between her and Remus. Maybe they just had to get more comfortable with each other. Hermione resolved to take Remus out to dinner tomorrow night, deciding that the only way to become more comfortable was to spend more time with him. To her surprise, she couldn't wait to hang out with him again.


	2. The Second Day of Christmas

**AN: Hey guys, I meant to update sooner but I just had surgery two days ago and I haven't really been feeling up to it. Anyways, today was a good day and so I got lots of writing done. I hope you all enjoy!**

December 15th—The Second Day of Christmas

Hermione woke up the next morning to the scent of bacon, and was delighted to find that Remus had made some extra for her. The only bummer was that Remus was nowhere in sight. He had plated some scrambled eggs and bacon for her and set it neatly on the table next to a note explaining that he would be out with Sirius for the day.

Yes, Hermione definitely needed to treat this man to a nice, expensive meal. He was sharing his food with her, even though his budget was likely already tight from unemployment. That realization gave Hermione an idea. She should go out and buy some groceries for him. It was only fair.

She took stock of the remaining food in the kitchen—which wasn't really a lot—then made a trip to the muggle market to refill those empty cupboards. She didn't know Remus very well, but she knew that he enjoyed cooking his own food, and so she got all the cooking essentials: milk, eggs, vegetables, ground beef, chicken, cheese, etc.

On her way to the checkout, Hermione made a last minute decision to throw a box of assorted chocolates in the cart. Though she didn't know much about Remus, she knew from her third year at Hogwarts that he carried chocolate with him everywhere he went, and she somehow doubted it was simply in case he happened to run into an angry dementor.

She payed and stepped into a deserted alley so she could shrink the groceries and pocket them away from muggle eyes. She returned the cart and apparated back to Grimmauld Place. Back home.

Hermione spent the afternoon unpacking the groceries and tidying up the house. Because the house wasn't a permanent settlement, some of the more simple chores like dusting and washing the windows were never actually done. There was a thick layer of dust on every surface, cobwebs in corners, dust bunnies under the sofa, grime in the corners of the windows, and many other disgusting things that probably hadn't been properly cleaned since the summer before Hermione's fifth year when she, Harry, and the younger half of the Weasley children slaved away for weeks under Molly's orders.

Luckily, most of the work wasn't too hard. She was allowed to use magic to clean this time, unlike when she was fifteen, so she didn't have to get her hands too dirty. And if she didn't have the proper spell or supplies for a task, she could easily transfigure something into what she needed. Thank Merlin for magic!

While she was dusting, she found an old, broken-down record player in the corner of a sitting room. On a shelf next to it, Hermione found a small collection old records that could only have belonged to Sirius. She was delighted to find that Sirius had amazing taste in music, and that she recognized many of the albums. She finally decided upon _Black Sabbath_ 's album _Paranoid_ , and with a quick reparo, she began to rock out while cleaning the main floor.

The music was so loud that she didn't hear when Remus returned to the house at about 4:00. He was totally bewildered as to why the song _Hand of Doom_ was blaring, but he had to quickly suppress his laughter when a crazy-looking Hermione clumsily headbanged her way into the entranceway, dancing crazily and singing—well, more like screeching—all the words of _Hand Of Doom._ Remus found it all quite charming, actually.

Her back was to him, so she still hadn't noticed him yet. Before Remus even noticed what he was doing, his eyes wandered to her bottom, which was swaying to the beat. She had a really nice arse, and the jeans she was wearing made it look so enticing…NO! Remus wanted to slap himself. He felt like such a pervert, staring at the arse of a girl half his age. He was disgusted by himself, and decided it would be best for him to make his presence known before she caught him staring at her behind.

"Not even in my wildest dreams would I ever have imagined Hermione Granger as being a heavy metal fan…I guess you never really know a person until you live with them," Remus laughed, trying not to look guilty.

Hermione had jumped over a foot in the air when she heard someone behind her speak, and was actually panting from the intensity of the scare.

"Remus Lupin, you arse! You scared the magic out of me!" she screeched, then pinned him with a withering look. "You were very nearly on the receiving end of a reflex hex, you know that?" She saw something flicker in Remus' eyes when she said the word 'arse', though it was gone before she could identify what it was. She brushed it off, deeming it insignificant.

"Hmmm…easily scared as well. I should make a list of the things I am learning about you. It's getting hard to keep up," Remus teased.

Hermione narrowed her eyes menacingly and stuck her tongue out in a childish manner. Remus laughed and turned to take off his coat. Hermione didn't realize that she was staring at Remus' back muscles through his thin shirt until she started wondering what they would look like without the fabric covering them. This made her eyes widen, and she had the urge to slap herself.

"So what have you been up to all day? Don't tell me you spent the _entire_ day ransacking Sirius' old metal records" he said, turning back around to face her.

"Of course not! I also did some groceries and cleaned the house."

Remus' head snapped up. "Hermione, I won't have you treating me like some charity case. I'll have you know that—"

"I'm not, you silly man," Hermione interrupted with a smile, "I just wanted to put in my share. You've fed me my dinner last night and breakfast this morning—which was positively delectable, by the way—and so it was my turn to provide you with some food."

Remus' mouth quirked in a crooked smirk. "Hermione, I really need to teach you to have some fun."

"What?" she asked, taken aback by the quick change of subject.

"The stick in your arse is so big that it's probably drilling a hole in your intestines. I need to teach you to have some fun that doesn't involve work or reading."

"Pffft! _You_ teach _me_ to have fun? As if! Your idea of fun probably consists of a sock hop and a drive in diner, _old man_."

"Ha ha, you're absolutely hilarious. 'Old man'…comedy gold," Remus drawled while rolling his eyes, "but as a matter of fact, it would not consist of those things. I may seem old, but you should remember that I'm a Marauder. I have more fun in my big toe than you have in your entire body."

"Oh alright, I'll amend my last statement then. A Marauder's idea of fun probably involves booby-trapping a Slytherin's house and blowing up a watermelon," Hermione retorted with a quirked eyebrow. She wasn't usually this sassy with anyone, but Remus brought out her sense of humour. He understood it, too, unlike most people.

"Blowing up a watermelon? I've never done that, but it sounds like fun! Let's go get Padfoot and we can try it!" Remus said while turning to the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Hermione cried, grabbing his wrist before it could reach the door. Something shifted in the atmosphere, albeit only slightly, when her fingers wrapped around his wrist. She had always read in books that the air would become thicker in a moment like this, and she had never really experienced that until now. The air felt too thick to pass through her airway, which caused her breaths to become shallow and her heart rate to pick up slightly.

Remus had stopped in his tracks, his fingers wrapped around the doorknob like Hermione's were around his wrist. Her fingers were colder than he would have expected from such a warm and happy girl. He had the urge to take her hands in his to warm them up. He wanted to warm _her_ up…DAMNIT, LUPIN! GET IT TOGETHER!

And yet, he couldn't help but tentatively peek down to where her hand met his wrist. Something about it struck him as so right. Guilt quickly accompanied that sentiment. This shouldn't feel right at all! Hermione was only twenty-one, and he was already thirty-nine years old. Eighteen years older. Positively disgusting. _And_ he was a werewolf on top of that. He wouldn't allow himself to feel these feelings for a girl who deserved ten times better than him.

After what felt like minutes, though was probably not even more than a few seconds, Hermione released his wrist. All the humour had left both of them, and now they simply stood face-to-face, looking into each other's eyes, just as they had done the night before.

"Can I take you to dinner tonight?" Hermione blurted before she could stop herself. Her stomach dropped as though she had just done a loop-de-loop on a rollercoaster. Why the hell did she have to say it like that? It sounded as though she was asking him on a date. "It's my turn to make you a meal, but seeing as I can't cook I thought I could take you to a restaurant. I know this really nice one not too far from here…" she started babbling, trying to save face.

"Alright," Remus said simply, "what time should we leave?"

The fact that he accepted didn't at all help to relieve her of the stupor she was in. Not that she had expected him to refuse, but accepting it made it all very real. Oh Merlin, she was such a mess.

"Seven?" Hermione found herself suggesting.

"Alright," Remus said again, his eyes still not leaving hers.

"Alright," Hermione repeated back dumbly. After a few more seconds of standing there awkwardly, Hermione turned and half-ran up the stairs. She closed her bedroom door behind her, grabbed her pillow and smothered her face in it. What the hell was she doing?

When she finished mentally abusing herself for everything she had just done, she took an apprehensive peek at her watch. It was half past six. What time had she—? SHIT SHIT SHIT SHE ONLY HAD THIRTY MINUTES TO GET READY!

Hermione gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror on her dresser and realized that she was a total wreck. She was all dirty and kind of smelly from her cleaning earlier, so a shower was a must. And _what on earth_ was she going to wear?!

Hermione stripped off her clothes hastily and jumped in the shower. She forewent her usual routine of shaving and scrubbing herself with her fancy soaps and body scrubs, and decided instead to just wash herself with her hazelnut and shea butter body soap just to get the smell of sweat and cleaning product off of her. She then proceeded to dry herself off with a nifty little charm Lavender had taught her.

Practically sprinting over to her newly-filled wardrobe, Hermione started riffling through every garment of clothing she owned, instantly deeming everything unworthy for going on a date with—wait what?! Why on earth did Hermione's subconscious consider this a date? Hermione shook her head and reassured herself that she was taking Remus Lupin, her former professor, out to dinner as a friend. _Only a friend._

And with that last notion, Hermione decided that her outfit wasn't actually that important. She looked through her clothes and decided upon a powder blue ribbed knit sweater and a pair of leggings. It was comfy and casual, but also very cute at the same time. Most important of all, it didn't scream 'I'M TRYING TO IMPRESS REMUS LUPIN BECAUSE I'M DEVELOPING YET ANOTHER GOSH DARN SCHOOLGIRL CRUSH ON ONE OF MY FORMER PROFESSORS!'

And so, after exactly thirty minutes, Hermione descended the staircase to meet Remus at the door. He was wearing an old band t-shirt that did nothing to quash the fluttery feeling in the bottom of her stomach. That, as well as the super sexy jeans he was wearing, both clung to him in all the right places. It actually took Hermione a second to realize what band was being featured on his shirt: Black Sabbath.

She smirked at him as she slipped on her coat. "Ha, ha. Very funny."

"I thought so," Remus replied, winking playfully at her.

As soon as they had bundled up sufficiently for the mild winter weather, they stepped out onto the street to walk. It was a little colder than Hermione remembered it being earlier on in the day, but it was totally bearable. They had both agreed to walk to the restaurant since it was only a twenty minute walk, and they both needed some exercise after all of Remus' delectable, fattening meals.

They chatted all along the way, discussing anything and everything all at once. Once again, they were back to the easy conversations and light teasing that Hermione was quickly growing to love. About halfway to the restaurant, it started snowing. They were both surprised since the weather had been so mild earlier, and since it didn't snow very often in London.

Hermione resisted the urge to skip around in happiness like she used to as a little girl during the first snow at Hogwarts, but there was no way that she could stop the child in her from sticking out her tongue and attempting to catch one of the fat flakes in her mouth. Remus laughed and Hermione blushed, though it probably wasn't very visible due to the rosiness the cold weather had painted on her nose and cheeks.

"I love the snow," Hermione sighed happily. She looked up at Remus to find him looking down at her with a funny expression on his face. It wasn't a bad expression, just one that she had never seen him use before. All Hermione knew was that it was not a look that he would give to one of his students, and that thought caused her stomach to flutter again. Fifteen minutes into the evening, and already Hermione was losing her grip on all logic.

Hermione was very grateful when they entered the warmth of _La Luce D'amore_ , her favourite restaurant in all of London. The storm had been slowly picking up in pace, to the point that there was already a thin, dusty layer of it covering the ground. Hermione and Remus shook themselves off in the small entranceway and followed the hostess to their table.

The dinning room was the best part of the entire restaurant—besides the food of course. It had a sort of quaint, cottage-like warmth to it that made her inexplicably happy. They sat down at a small but comfortable booth at the back corner of the room, which would provide them with lots of privacy. Hermione didn't know why she was glad about that last part, but she had a feeling it wasn't for a very honourable reason.

"So what do you think you'll be getting?" Remus asked from behind his menu. The menu was one of those overwhelmingly large ones, the ones that took you ten minutes to read and then another ten to actually decide what you wanted from the never-ending list of options. Despite that, Hermione got the same thing every time. She had always been a girl who knew what she wanted.

"The grilled cheese with a caesar salad and french onion soup," Hermione declared, folding up her menu and placing it on the table.

Remus' eyebrows lifted. "How on earth did you come to that conclusion so quickly? There must be a hundred different options here, and you looked at your menu for all of…what, thirty seconds?"

"I actually didn't look at it at all, but I didn't want to make you feel bad so I pretended to. The grilled cheese is the best thing on the menu. That is a fact," she smiled knowledgeably.

"You can't possibly know that for certain! You'd have to try every item on the menu to know that."

"I have only ever had the grilled cheese here, and yet I still know it's the best."

"What can be so great about grilled cheese in comparison to a seafood linguini…or a fillet mignon?" Remus cried indignantly, looking nearly offended. Damn, did Remus ever love his food…

"I know it's the best because it tastes almost exactly like how my mum used to make it. It was my favourite food ever and she was the best at cooking it, but I went years without tasting it due to a memory charm mishap. I found this establishment about six months ago and it's been my favourite ever since."

Hermione hadn't meant to get that deep, but it all somehow just spewed out of her mouth. She had never told anybody about this restaurant, never shared that little fact about her with anyone, and yet now she was sharing it with Remus Lupin. She didn't let herself think about it too deeply.

Remus was looking at her funny again, but this time it was a bad kind of funny. What was it…pity…empathy…understanding perhaps?

"What can I get you pair of turtle doves this evening?" asked a friendly waitress who had come to take their order. She obviously thought that Hermione and Remus were a couple. Neither one of them corrected her, but Hermione refused to think too deeply about that as well.

"Grilled cheese, french onion soup, and a caesar salad please."

A pause.

"I'll have the same."

Now it was Hermione's turn to look at him funny. Remus gave her a small smile, his deep green eyes never leaving her brown ones.

"Well, I've got to try the best grilled cheese in the world, haven't I?"

That was it. There was no more denying it. Hermione was officially falling for Remus Lupin, and boy was she falling hard.


	3. The Third Day of Christmas

**AN: Sup guys? I'm literally posting this while sitting in my family room, watching these gorgeous fat, fluffy snowflakes fall outside my patio door, enjoying the aroma of the Christmas tree we just put up yesterday. My surroundings are so insanely Christmasy right now, and just the thought of the Christmas concert I'm performing in this afternoon...can you tell I love Christmas? I hope you all have a day as lovely as mine is right now! Enjoy!**

December 16th—The Third Day of Christmas

Remus wasn't one to be rendered speechless very often. He was nearly always of sound enough mind to form coherent thoughts and sentences, and yet something in the last couple of days had changed that. It was really no mystery what this something was; Hermione Granger was quickly invading his brain and affecting his every thought.

From the moment she had stepped down the staircase the previous evening in those sexy leggings that showed off her slender legs, the scent of what Remus could only define as 'warm and sweet' tickling his senses when she walked by, Remus had known that his already questionable restraint would be practically non-existent by the end of the evening. He had been more right than he had expected.

Remus could have blamed it on the weather, that damned pathetic fallacy creating the perfect romantic atmosphere for their walk. He definitely could have blamed it on the whimsical joy she received from catching the snow on her tongue and eating that fantastic grilled cheese. Or perhaps he could have blamed it on blood; how it rushed to her cheeks, giving her that gorgeous innocent look, and how that image made all of _his_ blood rush to his—never mind…

Anyways, Remus knew better than to blame anyone or anything but himself for his actions last night. Sure, there were some factors that definitely did not help, but he was solely responsible for what he did. Remus ran his hands through his hair compulsively (not unlike James used to in moments of stress like this) and thought back to how everything culminated to that very big mistake last night.

 _Remus and Hermione had stayed at the restaurant for perhaps two hours, eating their food and drinking once their bellies had been sufficiently filled. Remus was quite partial to wizard alcohol, but Hermione had shown him a few muggle drinks that he thought were pretty good as well._

 _Once they had had their fill of alcohol and were both decently tipsy, they paid the bill and started their journey home. By that time, the snowfall had escalated to a bit of a snowstorm. The wind was howling and they could barely see ten feet in front of them, but it was still safe enough for them to walk home._

 _Hermione and Remus were laughing and stumbling together, enjoying the combination of cold from the snow and warmth from the alcohol. It was fun being drunk with Hermione because she never forced him into stupid stunts or dares like Sirius did. Instead, they continued their light teasing and did their best to impersonate_ Queen's _song_ Bohemian Rhapsody, _laughing at how it echoed into the night, mixing with the sound of the howling winds._

 _About five minutes away from the house, Hermione started to shiver. She hadn't dressed very warmly due to the mild weather earlier and she wasn't wearing any gloves. Remus wasn't wearing any either, but his hands were nice and cozy in his pockets, unlike Hermione's which were probably frozen from making a snowball and throwing it at him earlier. Remus, being much too inebriated to have his usual common sense, stopped Hermione and took her hands and began rubbing them between his to warm them up. He did this for a minute or so, trying his best to warm up her little, frozen hands. And boy were they little. Remus couldn't help but marvel at how small and dainty they were, like those of a child._

 _Hermione looked up at Remus with an intense look in her eye, and just like that, what started off as something with innocent intentions was now full of heat and lust. Remus, holding both her hands in only one of his own, took his other hand and raised it slowly to her face to push a stray curl back behind her ear. When she didn't give any sign of disgust or protest, Remus curled the tip of one of her many tendrils around his finger, almost in a reverent manner. When he looked back into her eyes, he saw that her lids had closed and she was biting her lip in a way that aroused Remus beyond words._

 _When Hermione gave another shiver, one that Remus mistook for an effect of the weather rather than of his romantic ministrations, he dropped his hands and motioned for her to finish the final five minutes of their walk home._

 _Longest five minutes of his life._

 _They had both become significantly less talkative since that heated moment, though their silence wasn't awkward at all—it was charged with electricity. They were both replaying the scene they had just acted out over and over in their still drunken minds, and there was a feeling of excitement that warmed them both up from the inside out, despite the ever-increasing winds. The snow was now swirling all around them, creating a whirlwind of confusion and exhilaration, increasing the buzz of anticipation flowing like electricity between them. Remus' entire focus was on the girl walking next to him, and he had nothing in his mind except want. Want that was quickly turning into need._

 _Before either one of them realized what was going on, they had entered the warmth of number twelve Grimmauld Place, and within two seconds Hermione was being sandwiched between Remus and the wall having her mouth assaulted by his own liquor-flavoured one. They were both moaning into each other's mouths, their boots and coats had somehow come off, and they were all over each other. They had become a tangle of limbs; Hermione's legs wrapped around his waist, her hands running through his hair while Remus' hands were exploring her back, slowly making their way to her arse…_

And that was all that Remus remembered. He woke up the next day in his bed, still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, save for his shirt, which he must have stripped off somewhere between making out and losing consciousness, and was nursing a massive hangover.

It was nearly noon now and most of his headache had passed. He had gone over the events of last night countless times in his head, and yet he still couldn't piece together how on earth he had gone from snogging the hell out of Hermione to sleeping alone in his bed. And he did feel the slightest amount of bitterness that he had gone to bed without Hermione, though he knew it was probably a good thing if his hangover was any indication of how drunk he had been.

Suddenly, there was a knock at Remus' bedroom door. He looked down at himself to find that he was still shirtless and scrambled to throw on a shirt to cover his scars.

"I'll be just a second," he called out frantically, realizing that he was trying to fit his head through a sleeve hole. As soon as he managed to cover himself up decently, he flopped back down onto his bed in an attempt to look casual and called for Hermione to enter.

She opened the door just wide enough for her to peek her head inside, almost as though she was scared to enter his room. _Damnit, she's embarrassed and regrets last night. I knew it…_

"I made some eggs for breakfast—or lunch I guess—if you want some. They're nothing fancy, you know, what with my inability to—uh—cook things…" she stuttered, never meeting his eyes. Remus wanted to repeatedly smash his head into the wall until he was no longer conscious. He was such a horrible person. How on earth could he make this up to her? _Well, I could probably start by accepting her offer of eggs…_

"Eggs sound great" Remus muttered with a guilty almost-smile. All this self-hatred was making his hangover about three times worse than it already was.

As Remus and Hermione walked awkwardly down the stairs together, Remus was wondering how Sirius could easily snog a drunk girl every week and never feel an ounce of guilt, and yet the one time that _he_ tries it with a girl he _actually knows_ , he starts pondering ways to commit a horrible, painful suicide.

Hermione went to the stove to grab the pan of scrambled eggs she had made while Remus sat down at the table. He was staring at his plate emptily, trying to form some sort of decent apology for his colossal screw-up. Hermione served some egg to both of them, then sat down and assumed a similar position to Remus'.

"So…I know these eggs are probably crap. Believe it or not, the intent with them was actually an omelet…and yet they still somehow turned out scrambled. Anyways, I hope it'll be at least semi-edible. I swear, I only used eggs from the finest of french hens and I'm pretty sure I managed to scrape out most of the shells…" she muttered awkwardly, evidently struggling to start a conversation. Remus couldn't take it anymore.

"Hermione, I am so sorry for last night. I know you probably think me a pervert and an arse, and what I did—"

"What are you talking about Remus?" Hermione cut him off, confusion etched into her features. _Oh Merlin…she doesn't remember, does she?_

"Last night…you do remember what happened last night, don't you?"

"Well of course _I_ do, but I'm honestly surprised that _you_ remember it all," Hermione shot back with her eyebrows knitted together.

"Well…to be honest, I don't remember some of it, but I remember enough to know that I was in the wrong and that I took advantage of you," Remus admitted with some difficulty. His shoulders were tensed in preparation for the moment when Hermione would start yelling at him.

"Remus, you weren't the one who took advantage last night. I took advantage of you. You were drunk and—"

"Well I'd say we were both equally drunk, but I was the one who came onto you and—"

"Of course we weren't equally drunk, you silly man! I wasn't half as drunk as you were! I stopped after the fourth round. I thought that at least one of us should remain semi-sober, and since dinner was my treat I let you get pissed. I let you come onto me and make out with me, therefore it is me who is the arse, not you."

Remus took a moment to let this sink in. She hadn't been drunk when they kissed? Did that mean that it was a conscious decision? Remus clutched his forehead in pain, dropping his fork noisily onto his plate of forgotten eggs.

"The last thing I remember from last night is kissing you. Next thing I know, it's ten a.m. and I have a massive hangover…can you tell me what happened in between? We didn't—?"

"No, of course we didn't!" Hermione blurted out quickly. Remus' heart sunk. She was obviously appalled at the idea of sleeping with him.

"Okay, so we just…stopped?" Remus asked, feeling as though he was missing something big.

"Yes. I stopped us once I came to my senses. You were so drunk that half of your sentences weren't even coherent, and so I did the responsible thing and stopped us. I brought you to your room, where you promptly dropped on your bed and passed out."

Remus, again, had to take a minute to digest this. Hermione's words were spewing out of her mouth faster than his brain could properly process them. At first his heart sunk a little at that tone of regret in her voice, but soon enough the realization that he wasn't a _complete_ asshole and pervert—that Hermione knew of, at least—sunk in and a weight seemed to lift from his chest.

"Remus, I can't tell you how sorry I am! You weren't responsible for your own actions, but I was, and they were completely inappropriate. I am so horribly embarrassed and I would totally understand if you don't forgive me. I packed my bags last night just in case, and though I don't have anywhere of my own to go, I'm sure I could crash with Harry for—"

"What? Of course I don't want you to leave! Unless you want to, that is…"

"No, I really don't."

There was a pause that seemed to stretch on for ages while both of them tried to process everything. Remus sighed.

"Hermione, I know this will be hard for both of us, but perhaps it would be beneficial to both of us if we were just straightforward with each other for the next few minutes. All this tiptoeing around each other is useless and annoying, and so can we just say what we mean so that we aren't here for another three months?" Remus winced a little. It was a terrifying suggestion, but he knew that it was the only way they would get anywhere.

"Straightforward? Define straightforward…" Hermione murmured hesitantly.

"Um, I don't know…it's an adjective meaning honest, uncomplicated…"

"Oh, shut up! You know what I mean." Hermione rolled her eyes playfully. The atmosphere had shifted a little, and now it was just slightly more comfortable. Remus thanked Merlin for that fact because things were probably going to get uncomfortable again soon.

"Alright. By straightforward I mean we stop worrying so much about what the other person is going to think and say about what we are feeling. We tell each other how we _truly_ feel right now."

"Alright, I think I can handle that. May I add a rule?" Hermione asked, pursing her lips to hide the small smile forming there.

"You may," Remus chuckled, not surprised by this at all.

Hermione looked down into her lap and blushed a little. "I propose we have a rule stating that we can't interrupt each other, that we have to wait until a person is done speaking their feelings before they pitch in."

"I accept the proposition. You do realize that we are by far the most stubbornly logical Gryffindors to ever exist, right?"

"Second to Minerva McGonagall, yes," Hermione laughed.

"Agreed."

Yet another pause.

"So who goes first?" Hermione asked a little too eagerly.

"I'm getting the feeling that you want to," Remus asked with a small smirk and narrowed eyebrows. Hermione nodded eagerly and began.

"Okay, so I know I sort of just went, but I feel like I emphasized my apology a little too much. That was a great kiss—I mean, they were great kisses," Hermione amended with another signature blush, "and, though I know it was inappropriate, I don't regret it at all. So…how is that for straightforward?"

"Perfect," Remus muttered under his breath without hesitation, his eyes locked on hers in shock. She _didn't_ regret it? Did that mean…could he hope against hope that—?

"What?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion for the hundredth time so far this conversation.

"I don't regret it either. In fact, if I'm being honest…I haven't been able to stop fantasizing about making out with you since you arrived on the doorstep…among other things…" Remus trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand nervously.

"Wait, so you aren't mad at me?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course not! Why on earth would I be mad at you? You…you…" Remus trailed off, realization hitting him like the Hogwarts express. He couldn't possibly date Hermione, even if they could get past the age difference. It was a simple reason why it would never work out, and Remus couldn't believe he had forgotten it: he was a werewolf.

"Remus? Are you okay? What's—"

"I'm sorry, Hermione. It was dumb of us to even consider this. We can't do this, it's just wrong. It's—"

"You interrupted me," she stated, sounding hurt and offended.

Remus sighed impatiently. "The game is over, Hermione. The rules no longer apply. Let me make this clear so that you don't misinterpret this—"

"NO! SHUT UP!" Hermione yelled, surprising not only Remus but herself as well, though she hid it well. "Remus Lupin, I swear to Merlin that if your reasoning behind not wanting to do…whatever this is has anything to do with your lycanthropy or your age, GODRIC HELP ME I WILL BE FORCED TO WOLLOP YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH A ROLLING PIN! If I'm lucky, it might knock some sense into you!"

Remus was actually quite stunned. He had heard stories from Harry of Hermione's temper, but it was all legend to him up until now. This woman was truly terrifying. Though perhaps even scarier was the fact that her fierceness did nothing to quell his ever-growing crush.

"Hermione, I know that you would be alright with it. Hell, if you were best friends with The Boy Who Lived for all those years at Hogwarts, you must have some sort of danger fetish or death wish. But that's beside the point. I don't think you realize how _I_ would feel if I ever _did_ accidentally hurt you. I would never be able to live with myself. There's a reason that werewolves never marry non-werewolves, Hermione. The chances of me hurting you are too high…"

Remus' brow furrowed when Hermione's face remained unimpressed and almost bored. He had expected a little more of a sorrowful reaction. What Remus didn't know was that Hermione didn't like bullshit. After all those months in the tent with Harry and Ron, the Kings of Bullshit, she had developed a general rule to never even bother putting up with bullshit.

"Are you done yet?" she asked, raising an impatient eyebrow.

"Wha—um, I suppose?" Remus spluttered.

"Good. I don't give a crap. That's positively ridiculous— _you're_ being positively ridiculous! This is the wizarding world, for Christ's sake! Do you know how many times a year a spouse blows up another spouse as a result of a faulty potion or spell experiment? The wizarding world has never been a safe place, and if I was actually afraid of losing my life to some accident in the magical world, I wouldn't still be here, would I? But the thing is, I love magic too much. Magic is worth the risk, and so are you, Remus Lupin. And plus, you aren't a compulsive potion experimenter and you never really do anything risky ever, so that just about evens out the odds of me dying around you to the odds of me dying around any other wizard. Oh! And another thing—"

Hermione's rant was so angry and fast and she was still so focused on proving her point to Remus that she didn't even notice when the man in question sprang up from his seat, leaned across the narrow table and press his lips to hers, effectively cutting her off. She had proved her point. Angry Hermione was hot, but she was also very long-winded.

Remus could sort of see things from her point of view—that wasn't to say that he agreed with them—but he definitely understood her point enough to stop arguing. _For now._

Hermione was the one to pull away from the kiss, placing her hands on his cheeks and pushing away just slightly. She pierced him with a distrusting look. "You can't have abandoned your beliefs this easily. You're too stubborn. Even if I made a good point, which I did, you still would never concede this quickly."

"You are too shrewd, Miss Granger," Remus said in his old teacher voice just for the effect, "but just because I'm tired of hearing you prattle on about your views on lycanthrope-witch dating, I'm calling a truce. Your lips are much too kissable when you vociferate as you just did, and so I'm doing my duty as a warm-blooded male and I'm kissing the hell out of you."

He started to kiss her again, but Hermione pushed him back again, only a little so that they could still feel their breath mingling between them. Hermione, adopting that little cheeky twinkle in her eye again, muttered: "I'm glad you aren't fully convinced yet because I have another three body paragraphs beginning to form in my head, and all of them are truly wonderful points that I think you would be able to appreciate."

"I swear, the more swot-like you act, the more I feel the urge to thoroughly snog you."

"Then why don't you?" she smiled cheekily before grabbing a fistful of Remus' sleep-mussed hair and continued to kiss him.


	4. The Fourth Day of Christmas

**AN: Hey, I'm back! Sorry it's been so long, but I've been so busy with all of my other Christmas preparations. Anyways, here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

December 17th—The Fourth Day of Christmas

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house," he muttered sweetly, reading from a library book he had recently borrowed from the library. There was a small stack of other books, Hogwarts: a History included, lying in the corner of the room, just waiting to be read. He enjoyed reading to her, especially as her due date came closer.

"Don't stop, love. She's finally stopped kicking," his wife sighed contentedly, her eyelids closed in relaxation.

"Not a creature was stirring…not even a mouse," he continued. His wife sighed happily. The baby always kicked the least when he talked, which was why he had borrowed so many books from the library. Reading stories meant less thinking to keep up the one-sided conversation.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there," he muttered right against the bulge of his wife's belly, then kissing that spot as soon as he had finished his sentence. The baby was coming very soon, and he positively couldn't wait. She would be his little Christmas miracle.

By the time that he had finished the relatively short story, his beautiful wife had fallen fast asleep. He pulled her nightshirt back over her beautifully rounded belly, then tucked her in gently. He then began to undress himself, preparing to join her in bed. _Their_ bed.

Just as he slipped under the cotton covers, his wife began to stir and her eyelids slowly cracked open. If Remus had thought she was beautiful before pregnancy, she was a goddess now in comparison. Her curly hair was silkier, her complexion brighter, her breasts larger…

"Shhh…it's okay. Go back to sleep, my love," he whispered to her.

She nodded and her eyelids fluttered closed again. She snuggled into her pillow further to get comfy. "Remus?" she asked sleepily.

"Yes, love?"

"You know you're going to be an amazing dad, right?" she yawned.

Remus just smiled sleepily and kissed her on the top of her head lovingly. "I know, love. I know that thanks to you."

"Love you," she slurred sleepily.

"I love you too, Hermione."

Remus woke with a start, turning his head frantically to the right side of his bed, where his wife had been just seconds ago. Remus wanted to smack himself. Of course it had only been a dream! He was such an idiot…and a pervert, for that matter. Dreaming about impregnating Harry's best friend…he was totally going to hell.

But the smitten part of Remus' mind, frantically searching for any excuse to allow him to get into her knickers while allowing him to remain honorable, reminded him that she was an adult and there would be nothing illegal about pursuing her. Nothing illegal, and yet it would still be frowned upon by the rest of the wizarding world. What a dilemma…

But looking back on the events of the previous day, Remus was much more inclined to give up on his morality, so long as he could have the temptress known as Hermione Granger all to himself. After their make-out session in the kitchen yesterday, they proceeded to eat the cold and all-around disgusting scrambled eggs that Hermione had attempted to make. Once they had done that, they resumed their kissing in the living room. And then the parlour. Then the hallway, the staircase, and finally Remus' bedroom. But they never went further than that.

He wasn't sure if Hermione had expected to go further, but Remus stopped them before they could. Sure, the full moon was far enough away for it to be quite safe, but he still felt as though doing anything more than kissing would be very wrong.

And so instead of doing the thing that Remus craved more than anything, they cuddled for a while until they both fell asleep. When he woke up later on in the day, Hermione was no longer in bed. This confused Remus quite a bit. When the girl left before the guy woke up, wasn't that code for 'this is just a one-time thing' or something? But then again, Hermione couldn't actually leave—well not properly, anyways. She was still living with him. Merlin, what a mess…

At that point in the day, Remus had decided to cook up something to eat. Hermione's door was closed, and so he assumed she wanted some alone time. He left some extra food on the stove for Hermione if she ever decided to eat and decided to retire to his room for the evening.

And so that led to now. It was about 8:00 am on Sunday morning, and Remus was scheduled to meet with Sirius in Hogsmeade for lunch. As he made his way to the kitchen, though, Remus heard Hermione's voice. She seemed to be talking to someone.

"Ginny…Gi—hey, can you hear me now?"

"Yeah, I think it's clearing up a li…" (a muffled, crackling noise cut her off) "where are you? Are you still at Grimmauld Place?"

Remus stopped and pressed himself against the wall next to the kitchen doorframe so that Hermione wouldn't see him. He wasn't sure why he was so keen to eavesdrop, but he chose to simply attribute it to his old marauding habits.

"Yeah, I am. What's going on? Why—"

"I can't hear you, 'Mione! Speak up."

"I was asking why the Floo network is acting up!"

"Why the—'Mione, haven't you looked outside at all in the past thirty-six hours? There's one hell of a…(connection breaks again)…storm happening. Where the hell have you been? Nearly…(more crackling)…snowed in!"

"Wait, what? Snowed in?! But—but this is London! We can't be…"

Remus was thinking along the same lines as Hermione, but as he glanced out the window at the end of the hall, it was obvious Ginny was right. There must have been more than four feet of snow piled everywhere, covering all the streets and driveways and blocking anyone from leaving, and the snow was still falling hard and fast. Remus doubted he would be able to so much as get out the front door without being swept away by a miniature avalanche.

Ginny began scolding Hermione. "Are there no bloody windows in your room at Grimmauld Place? Hermione, you need to get a life outside of your stack of books!"

"I haven't been…never mind," Hermione muttered, and Remus could nearly hear her blush from where he was. "Wait, if the snow is interfering with the Floo network then how will we get together today?"

"HERMIONE GRANGER, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE TERM 'SNOWED IN'?"

"Sorry! Damnit! Okay, that was really stupid of me. So I assume the ministry has deemed it unsafe to apparate in this weather?"

"Yep, and they're refusing to authorize portkeys for anything other than emergencies…(connection breaks for a little longer this time)…nearly the entire staff can't even make it to work, so it's all a big mess. So we'll have to get together with the girls another time."

"That's too bad. I was really looking forward to it," Hermione sighed.

"So was I, and now I'm really looking forward to when we reschedule it so you can tell me what had you so distracted if you weren't reading," Ginny said mischievously. Remus could picture the eyebrow waggle she was giving Hermione through the Floo call.

"Ginny, please don't read too much—"

"OH MY GOD HERMIONE! YOU AND _LUPIN_? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! THAT IS _WAYYYY_ TOO PERFECT!"

"Wha—I didn't even—?"

"You didn't have to. That blush tells me everything I need to know, and who else would you be trapped with all day in that creepy house? I need details! Is he a good kisser? Oh, and how good is he in bed?"

Remus' jaw dropped almost as low as his stomach. He loved the Weasley family, but he wasn't sure if he trusted any of them to keep a secret. Not only were they the most loving family he knew, but also the most social. If Ginny grew to be anything like her mother, Remus was sure there would be people in Papua New Guinea who would think that he and Hermione were together by the end of the week.

Hermione's voice sounded slightly panicked when she spoke next. "Oh, Ginny! The connection is getting worse. You'll let me know when the Floo network is fixed, won't you?"

"Oh, sure thing, Hermione! Talk later!" Ginny drawled knowingly.

Remus heard Hermione sigh and could tell that Ginny was no longer in the fire. He waited just a moment before entering the room.

"Good morning, Hermione."

Hermione startled a bit at Remus' abrupt appearance, and Remus pretended not to notice the guilty blush that painted her cheeks. He wondered if his cheeks were just as red. He opened the fridge and pulled out an apple for his breakfast. He was very surprised to find Hermione's eyes carefully observing his every move with a hungry expression in them. When she licked her lips as he took a bite from his apple, he had reached his limit.

"What is it that you want, Hermione?" The question burst from his lips before he could stop it.

"I'm sorry?"

"What are you looking for from this thing between us? Is it a sex thing? Is it a company thing? Is it a…is it more than that?" Remus asked with a desperate note in his voice. He couldn't stand not knowing anymore, though he had nearly screwed up in his last question and asked if it was a love thing. He just thanked Merlin he caught himself before he actually said it.

Hermione seemed quite taken off guard by all this, though there was a sort of resignation in her face. Almost as if she had been expecting this question.

"All of the above," she answered, not meeting his eyes.

It was Remus' turn to be taken aback. "What?"

"I'm looking for—oh, you won't make me say it all, will you? I feel anxious enough admitting this to you, I don't need to be forced to tell you that I'm falling for you," Hermione said, looking up at him with a nervous and embarrassed smile.

"I…uh…" Remus stammered, warring with himself on the inside.

Hermione sighed frustratedly. "Remus, for once in your life can you just do what feels right? Who cares about what society's expectations of us are? For once, just cut yourself some slack! If you don't want me, just tell me, but I can see in your eyes that you're conflicted. I'm right here Remus. I'm here and I want you," Hermione ended in a whisper, her eyes shining bright with suppressed tears.

At the note of desperateness in her voice, Remus stopped caring. All he wanted to do was to reassure her that he wanted her more than she could even fathom. And so, Remus set his apple on the counter and crossed the room in three large strides so that he was standing face-to-face with Hermione. As if she already knew what he was up to, she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck as his own wrapped around her back. They proceeded to kiss just like yesterday, though this time with so much more passion and emotion. It was positively toe-curling and shiver-inducing.

When they broke apart for air, Remus whispered "I want all of the above, as well" onto her lips. Hermione's lips broke into a massive smile, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck, squeezing him more tightly to her and breathing in his scent. Remus smoothed her hair soothingly and enjoyed the warm, feminine scent that was signature to Hermione.

"So what do we do now?" Hermione murmured into his neck.

Remus thought about this for a moment. "I have no clue. I would suggest going out together for a first date of sorts, but seeing as the weather is…" Remus indicated outside as he trailed off.

Hermione pulled out of his embrace. "That's right! Did you have any idea about the travel ban going on right now?"

"I heard of it this morning," Remus replied vaguely, hoping he wasn't blushing too hard. He always blushed when he lied or told half-truths.

They were silent for a moment before Hermione piped up. "Hey, we could always watch a movie! I have a portable DVD player and I'm sure I have a Christmas movie somewhere in my movie collection."

"I'll make the popcorn, then," Remus smiled. Movies were a great first date in his opinion because it involved all the cuddling and making out without all of the small talk and awkward silences that he usually experienced with women. Though, this _was_ Hermione that he would be with…she was different from all the other girls he knew.

And so within ten minutes, Hermione and Remus were snuggled together on a sofa in the parlor, a blanket draped over their laps, the fireplace crackling in the background as the movie played out on Hermione's miniature muggle television.

Remus' arm had curled around her shoulders about thirty minutes into the movie, and Hermione had somehow snuggled herself into his chest, which she apparently found quite comfortable. Remus couldn't remember the last time he had felt this happy. Was this what contentment felt like?

Once they finished the movie, Remus decided that he had a craving for cookies, and so he asked Hermione if she wanted to learn how to bake them. Of course Hermione Granger was eager to learn anything and everything.

And so they began baking, and boy was it messy. Remus was pretty sure that a four-year-old would be less clumsy than Hermione. And she kept asking the most ridiculous questions all the time that made him laugh, but it just made her more endearing in his eyes.

"Remus?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"What size of cups are they asking for? We have all sorts of different sizes of glasses in this kitchen…

Remus simply laughed, explained to her the function of measuring cups, then returned to his own bowl where he was making the dry mix. It was only a few seconds before Hermione piped up again.

"Remus, it says to beat the eggs…that honestly sounds very violent…"

"Just mix them in, Hermione," he laughed.

There was soon a lull in questions as she began to understand the cookbook's instructions. So, to fill the silence, Remus started whistling _Hand of Doom_ by _Black Sabbath_ just to get a rise out of her. It worked.

"Oh, shut up, you!" She said, brandishing a fork covered in molasses at him and accidentally flinging a big glob of the goop right onto his shirt. It definitely would have been smart to wear an apron…

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She looked for a second as though she was about to apologize, but then began to giggle quietly. Remus, biting back his laughter, simply opened his arms wide and began to walk towards the little rascal, poised to hug her. She squeaked when she realized what he was up to, but she was cornered between the fridge and the counter.

"No! Ahhhhh…don't you dare, Remus. Don't you—ah, dammit!" Hermione cursed in between giggles as Remus enveloped her in a big bear hug, effectively smearing the molasses goop all over her shirt as well.

"Serves you right for flinging the wet mix at me!" Remus laughed.

"Hey, I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't started whistling like a calling bird at me."

"And I wouldn't have done that if the way you danced to that song hadn't been so hot," Remus retorted, his voice dropping to a lower tone as he realized just how close they were now. He had Hermione pressed up right against him, his arms wrapped around her back to trap her.

Hermione seemed to be realizing the same thing as her breathing seemed to become slightly heavier. Remus could feel her breasts pushing against his abdomen, and her arms slipped up between his own to wrap around his neck, pulling him even closer. The make-out session that ensued was heavenly.

They ended up finishing the molasses cookies a little later than they had expected, but the end result was quite satisfying.

The rest of the day was spent doing pretty much nothing. They watched another movie together, talked a little more, then cuddled on the couch as they each read their own books. Remus was reading one of his all-time favourites, The Great Gatsby, and Hermione was reading an old tome on the Goblin Rebellions. Hermione actually ended up falling asleep on Remus' chest (and he didn't blame her for it, what with the book she had chosen to read), but Remus didn't notice until he realized that she hadn't turned a page in over twenty minutes. He thought about moving her, but he realized that he was quite comfy where he was. He ended up falling asleep as well, watching the flames begin to die in the fireplace and the snowstorm slowly come to a stop outside the window.


	5. The Fifth Day of Christmas

**AN: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter is so late. Between all the pre-holiday homework and the last-minute Christmas shopping, it's been hard to find time to write. So anyways, here it is! I will try my best to get in another chapter either tomorrow or Christmas day, boxing day at the latest. Love you all and I wish you all a happy and safe holiday! Enjoy!**

December 18th—The Fifth Day of Christmas

The next day, the Daily Prophet announced that the apparition ban had been lifted. Snowplows were working at clearing all the roads and people were busy shoveling their drives so that they could use their cars again. Ginny had Floo called Hermione this morning asking if they could reschedule their shopping trip for today. Hermione agreed enthusiastically.

Hermione, Ginny, Fleur Weasley, Audrey Weasley, and Angelina Weasley all got together for a whole day every December to do their holiday shopping for the rest of the Weasley family. It was a tradition they had started the first Christmas after the war ended, and one that they still carried out to this day. The idea when it started had been all the sister-in-laws getting together to buy for their family while all the husbands hung out together, even though Hermione and Ron had only been dating at the time. She and Ron dated for about three years, so the tradition had been well-established by the time they broke up. Hermione had been surprised that after all this time, the girls still invited her to tag along, but she knew that the Weasleys always considered her part of the family, even though she never officially joined. So now Hermione simply tagged along, still buying gifts for the Weasleys, but didn't spend nearly as much on them as she used to since they weren't technically family.

Hermione wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck and prepared to apparate to Diagon Alley, where all the girls agreed to meet.

"So when do you think you'll be home?" Remus asked, leaning against the door with a mug of coffee in his hand, despite it already being past lunchtime.

"I don't know. Probably not until around nine, maybe ten o'clock tonight."

"What? I can't survive the whole day without you! I might die from missing you too much!" Remus whined jokingly.

"Yes, dying is definitely a possibility without me. It has happened before, believe it or not," Hermione replied drily, checking her purse to ensure she had everything.

"Have fun, love," Remus smiled, and he walked over to give her a sweet, burning kiss that made her want to ditch all her plans and stay with him forever.

"Ugh, don't tempt me! I'm going to be late, and Fleur's tolerance for tardiness is worse than Professor Snape's was," Hermione groaned, unwrapping his arms from her waist.

"Alright then. Oh, and if you finally give in to Mrs. Potter's interrogation about our relationship, be sure to tell her that I'm _fantastic_ in bed," Remus said, taking a sip from his mug to hide the devilish smile forming on his lips.

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You—REMUS LUPIN, YOU BASTARD! You eavesdropped on my conversation with Ginny yesterday morning, didn't you?" Hermione whacked him playfully on the chest with the wallet in her hand.

"Alright, I confess. I happened to overhear some of your conversation as I admired the decor in the hallway outside the kitchen. Completely unintentional, I assure you," Remus laughed.

"Bastard!" Hermione repeated, whacking him in the chest once more. "I'm leaving now. Don't get into any more trouble with Sirius today, no matter how much he begs."

Remus feigned shock. "Are you insinuating that _I_ would ever do something to get myself into _trouble_? I assure you, Miss Granger, that I would never listen to one of Sirius' harebrained ideas."

"Mmhmm, I'm sure," Hermione rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "See you tonight."

Remus gave a small wave, and Hermione spun on the spot, apparating away from Grimmauld Place. She reappeared a second later next to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

"Well eets about time!" an exasperated voice sighed behind her. "Seence when is 'ermione unpunctual?"

"I have a feeling this is a recent development, Fleur," Ginny said in a voice that told Hermione that Ginny had a good idea of the reason behind her tardiness.

Hermione whirled around to face her group of friends. Angelina and Audrey let out a squeal in unison and enveloped Hermione in a three-way hug. Normally Hermione would have protested, but she hadn't seen the girls—apart from Ginny—in several months. Work had simply gotten in the way.

"Oh, how are you, Hermione? Your hair looks lovely! Are you growing it out?" Angelina said so fast it almost sounded like one word.

"Ugh! It's been so long since we've seen you, Hermione! You didn't come to Thanksgiving at the Burrow this year. Why didn't you?" Audrey asked.

"Audrey, I already told you. Ron's new girlfriend came over, so it would have been awkward," Ginny explained exasperatedly.

"Oh right. I forgot about _her,_ " Audrey said, putting a lot more venom in the word 'her' than Hermione had ever known her capable of. Audrey was such a warm and happy person, the complete opposite of her husband, Percy, so Hermione wondered how horrid this new girlfriend must be.

"It's nice to see you guys, too. I'm sorry it's been so long, I just—wait a second! Angelina! You're—"

"I know. I'm huge. I'm only five months, believe it or not," Angelina laughed, rubbing her bulging belly lovingly through her coat.

"Wait, so you were pregnant back in August when we saw each other?" Hermione gaped, an incredulous smile breaking out on her face.

"Yeah. George and I had only found out about two weeks earlier. I can tell you that we had a hell of a time not telling. It was Molly who found out first, and it was three weeks before my first trimester ended. I swear, that woman can sniff out babies like a bloodhound!"

Hermione laughed and hugged her friend excitedly. "Congratulations! Oh, I'm so happy for you!"

"Ugh! Can we go get a drink or something? It's freezing out here and I always get better gift ideas when I'm drunk," Ginny shivered, urging the group towards The Leaky Cauldron.

"Is that fine with you, Angelina?" Audrey asked, patting her sister-in-law on the back comfortingly.

"Of course it is! Party it up, girls! You get drunk and I get a healthy baby. It's a win-win situation, if you ask me," Angelina laughed. Ginny whooped and pumped her fist in the air.

They entered the bar and ordered. Hermione went with a simple butterbeer, not wanting to be super drunk, and Audrey ordered the same. Angelina ordered herself a gillywater, and Ginny and Fleur went for a firewhiskey each, Fleur jokingly stating that she would need to be very drunk in order to stand spending all afternoon and evening with all of them.

By the time they had all finished drinking (and Fleur and Ginny were thoroughly drunk on several gigglewater shots), it was about mid-afternoon. They decided to get started on the shopping. They began with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who were pretty easy since Mr. Weasley went crazy over anything Muggle-related and Mrs. Weasley loved things to do with home decor. Hermione bought Mr. Weasley a polaroid camera and Mrs. Weasley a few new balls of wool for her knitting.

After that, the girls tackled all the children in the Weasley family. Hermione bought Victoire a new Quidditch-Witch doll set, complete with all the players of the Holyhead Harpies (including Aunt Ginny). She bought little Molly (Percy and Audrey's eldest) a new set of romance novels from Flourish and Blotts, and she bought Lucy (Percy and Audrey's youngest) a pink, bedazzled witch hat.

By the time they had gotten that far, it was six o'clock and they were all getting a little hungry. They deemed it a good time to stop and eat dinner. They headed down Toat Alley, a new section of Diagon Alley that was known for having a few young adult hangouts and night clubs down its narrow path. They found a cute little restaurant called Diggle's Diner and decided to eat their dinner there. The food turned out to be fantastic, and both Ginny and Fleur refilled on their alcoholic beverages over the course of dinner. The drunker the pair got, the more fun they all had.

"And so we narrowed down the date of conception to a night that George and I got so drunk that we ended up doing it in the store-room of the shop! The poor kid…totally unintentional!" Angelina squealed between gales of laughter, and all the other girls laughed until they had tears in their eyes.

"So how about you, Hermione? Have you gotten any recently?" Angelina asked with a waggle of her eyebrows once the laughter died down.

"No, not really," Hermione answered truthfully. She and Remus hadn't done anything…yet.

"And people say zhat I am zhe uptight one…" Fleur said before taking another sip of her firewhiskey.

"Ha! What a lie! I happen to know for a fact that Hermione does have a man…" Ginny said, her speech slurred ever so slightly.

" _Gin_!" Hermione groaned, mortified as Angelina and Audrey practically pounced on her, questions being asked so loudly that they were turning heads in the restaurant.

"What! Who is it? Come on, Hermione! You have to tell us!"

"Is he cute? Do we know him? How long have you been with him? Or is he just a shag buddy?"

"Of course he eesn't a ' _shag buddy_ ', Audrée! Do you eeven know 'ermione at all?"

"Okay, I'll tell you if you all shut up! You're being really loud and I can't have rumors going around that I'm using a man for sex. The Prophet would eat it up on toast," Hermione whisper-shouted.

"Fine, just tell us!" Angelina squealed excitedly.

"I do have something going on with a man, but it's brand new so we haven't actually slept together yet," Hermione sighed, trying not to smile at the thought of Remus' earlier request to make them think him a sex god.

"What? You haven't? But didn't you say earlier—"

"I never said anything, Gin. You did. And then I hung up on you," Hermione laughed.

Ginny squinted her eyes for a second, obviously trying to remember exactly what had happened, then her eyes widened in realization and she giggled a quiet "oh yeah…"

"But who is it?" Audrey asked, her eyes still wide with excitement.

Hermione thought about it for a moment, wondering if she should tell. "I still haven't talked to him about becoming official or not, so you can't tell anyone about it, alright? But…"

"But?!" Angelina and Audrey squeaked together.

"It's Remus Lupin," Hermione muttered quietly, her cheeks growing hot with embarrassment and happiness.

"OHMYGOD YOU'RE DATING PROFESSOR LUPIN?!" Angelina whisper-shouted.

"Hermione Granger, you naughty witch…" Audrey smiled, waggling her eyebrows.

"Oh shut up, all of you. It was purely accidental, and we tried not to. We know it's inappropriate, but you don't know how hard it is to live with someone you're extremely attracted to and—"

"Wait, you live wiz him?!" Fleur gaped before bursting into laughter.

"Well…I mean—okay, it's not what you think!" Hermione spluttered.

"Lavender moved out, and so Hermione's crashing at Grimmauld Place while she figures things out. Remus lives there too," Ginny explained.

"Exactly. Thank you, Ginny."

"So how long has this been going on? Oh, and how did it happen? Come on Hermione, we need details!"

Hermione sighed and began recounting their first kiss and how they ended up getting together after all their troubles.

"Ah, the beginning of relationships are always so much fun!" Angelina sighed reminiscently.

"Oh yeah, speaking of that: who is Ron's new girlfriend, anyway? And why do you all hate her so much?" Hermione asked curiously.

The girls all gave a collective groan of frustration. "Her name is Nikki Edgecombe. Ron brought her to Thanksgiving and she kept on talking about how horny she was! Even in front of the kids!" Angelina fumed.

Hermione gaped. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Ginny nodded before assuming a high-pitched, breathy voice that Hermione assumed was an impression of her. "Ron got me so wet before coming here just by kissing me, and now I just can't stop thinking about how much I want him!"

Angelina followed Ginny's lead and did another impression. "Do you think it would be too rude if Ron and I left now to shag a bit before dinner? Or maybe we could shag a bit upstairs?"

Hermione had a hand over her mouth in shock, but she also couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face. What a joke!

The girls all saw Hermione trying to hide her smile, and soon enough they all found themselves laughing at Ron and his prostitute girlfriend. Hermione could believe everything about this story. One of the reasons for which he had broken up with her was that she didn't spread her legs often enough. Hermione was still angry about that to this day…serves him right to get such a dumb witch.

After that, there were some more baby and pregnancy stories, some more catching up, and before they knew it, they were back on the streets of Toat Alley. As they passed by a lingerie shop, Ginny squealed, causing the group to stop in their tracks.

"What is it, Gin?" Hermione asked.

"I think I just figured out what we're going to get our men…" Ginny said with a wicked smirk on her face.

"Oh, no…no way! You have got to be kidding me, Ginny!"

"I'm not," Ginny smiled at Hermione.

"Well, you all have fun! I'll wait for you out here!" Hermione said, the blush on her cheeks forming more out of embarrassment than the cold.

"Ah, but eet is a good idea, 'ermione! Your Remus would love eet!"

"Okay, Fleur is now officially cut off from alcohol. If she were sober, she would be on my side right now," Hermione chuckled.

"Okay, you're probably right. But Fleur is no fun when sober, and neither are you. So you can either take that stick out of your arse willingly, or I will force it out of you because you are going in that store with us either way…" Ginny stated, with Angelina and Audrey nodding enthusiastically.

Hermione sighed, knowing that Ginny Potter could be an unmovable object if she wanted to, and Hermione didn't have the energy to be an unstoppable force right now. So she gave in, and the girls all ushered her excitedly into what would be her first Witch lingerie store. It was quite different from what Hermione had expected.

When thinking of the word 'lingerie', Hermione pictured silk and lace, bras and g-strings, slips and nighties. So her first glimpse of the store was quite shocking. Everything in the store looked like it belonged more in a medieval weapon room, rather than in a lingerie shop. There were metal and chainmail slips, leather suits, bras and knickers with spikes and studs on them, and many other dangerous-looking clothes.

"Uh, Ginny. You don't expect me to wear any of this, do you?" Hermione whispered to her friend, her anxiety shooting through the roof. What if someone caught her in this shop? She would become the laughingstock of the Ministry!

"Oh Hermione, they aren't all that bad! I mean, look at this bra! You can't tell me it's not sexy…" Angelina said, holding out a bra made entirely of chainmail. Hermione stared at the golden rings that made up its entirety, wondering how on earth it could be comfortable.

"Um, I really don't think…" but she trailed off as all the others started laughing.

"Oh, Hermione! You're so gullible! This it the vampire section. Vampires are super kinky, and so they like the metal and studs. The Witches section is in the back corner," Ginny laughed, indicating the back of the shop. Hermione was relieved to see some shelves and hangers with more regular-looking lingerie. _Thank Merlin…_

So the girls started perusing the various fabrics and styles. Hermione was surprised at how much one could learn about a couple based on the lingerie they liked. Hermione learned that Percy had a thing for lace and ribbons and that Harry found Ginny sexiest in deep green-coloured garments, rather than red and gold as she would have predicted (which Hermione couldn't help but wonder if there was a hidden meaning in that). She also learned that George had a thing for Angelina in crotchless panties since it "provides access at all times" according to Angelina, and Hermione really didn't want to know anything more than that. And finally, she learned that Bill was pretty kinky. Fleur had instantly made her way to a shelf on the other side of the room that displayed all sorts of sex toys, and was currently comparing the prices of floggers and whips for what she called 'stocking stuffers'. Hermione tried her best not to feel nauseous.

"Are you going to pick anything, Hermione?" Audrey asked quietly, for which Hermione was thankful because she didn't want the others to start hounding her again.

"I don't know…Remus and I have only been together for a few days, so I'm not really sure if we're getting each other presents."

"Well, that's perfect then!"

"What?"

"You wear the lingerie for Christmas under your regular clothes. If he gives you a gift, then you tell him that you got him one as well and strip. Give him a bit of a show, if you're really feeling it. Any guy would go crazy for that!"

Hermione thought about this for a moment. "Wow, that idea isn't actually half bad…I can honestly say that I would never have guessed lingerie to be such a problem-solver."

Audrey laughed. Both girls peeked over their shoulders to the others, who were beginning to compare underwear choices. That meant that Hermione had about five minutes left before they would pounce on her again and force all sorts of scandalous garments on her. Hermione had to act quickly if she wanted to keep any of her dignity. Audrey seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"From what you've seen so far, what do you think your man might be into? Would he prefer girly or sexy? Cute or scandalous?"

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe something in between all that. Nothing too girly, but nothing too scary."

"Alright, you go look for a slip or two that you might like to wear and I'll go find some bra and knicker sets," Audrey offered sweetly. Hermione gave her a quick hug in thanks, then they set to work.

Though she had a hard time finding something that wouldn't totally mortify her to wear, Hermione finally found a simple light blue silk slip with spaghetti-straps and a decent amount of cleavage that she thought would be good enough. Hermione smiled when she realized that the blue was the exact same colour as the jumper she wore for her first sort-of date with Remus. Yes, Remus would definitely love this.

Not a moment later, Audrey came back with two bags in her hand and handed them to Hermione. Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion.

"This is your Christmas present from all of us. I picked out three sets of underwear that I knew you would like for sure, and then each of us chose one more set that we wanted for you to give a try. The ones you will love are in the smaller bag, and the ones from us are in the bigger one. If we did our maths right—and we actually might not have, since Hogwarts doesn't teach maths—you should be set for underwear until Christmas. So no matter when you and your man decide to jump each other's bones, you'll be wearing underwear that will make his jaw drop," Audrey explained.

Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she just decided to give Audrey a grateful smile and hug each of the girls. No matter how insane they drove her, she would always love them. And despite her fear of exactly what she would find in the bag when she got home, she was really excited to show it all off to Remus.


	6. The Sixth Day of Christmas

**AN: Slightly later than I hoped, but not too bad. Warning: this is a pretty smutty chapter. Enjoy!**

December 19th—The Sixth Day of Christmas

It was now the morning of the 19th and Hermione was still trying to work up the courage to see what her friends had bought her from the lingerie store. The more she thought about it, the more her stomach clenched with a feeling of awful trepidation. What if her friends had horrible taste in underwear? What if they bought her the most horrifyingly scandalous garments imaginable? Hermione wouldn't be surprised if they had after seeing what they were choosing for themselves. But then again, they knew better than to get her bodysuits and corsets…

That last realization caused Hermione to get up from her bed and cross the room to the bags full of lingerie. She was going to look at them. No more stalling. She was going to—but who in the hell would name a lingerie store _The Frisky Phoenix_? Everything about that name was off-putting. Even the bags were bad, what with the golden Phoenix under the store title that looked more like a goose trying to lay an egg. Her reaching hand recoiled as she recommenced her overthinking.

"Oh, what the hell? I'm a Gryffindor, for Merlin's sake! I should be able to look at a few pairs of knickers without having nightmares about it!"

And with that, she opened one of the bags. This bag had only three sets of undergarments in it, which meant it wasn't the scary bag. Truth be told, Audrey actually guessed at her underwear style accurately. Sure, most of Hermione's undergarments were made of pastel cotton, but these sets weren't too far from that. They were all pretty comfy-looking, the first being a light green cotton set with little bits of white lace trimming, the second being a midnight blue silky set without much detailing, and the third being made completely of white lace-covered-silk. They were all simple, pretty, but not too girly. She liked them very much.

Hermione steeled herself as she eyed the unopened bag mistrustfully. Trying hard not to think about the dangerous-looking whips and torture devices she had seen Fleur perusing in the shop, Hermione peeked inside the bag.

The first thing she found in the bag was a bra made entirely out of sheer black lace. She managed to find a matching set of knickers next, and Hermione was relieved to see that the knickers weren't too uncomfortable-looking, even though they were quite sheer as well. If Hermione had to guess, the suspected that these would be from Audrey. Simple but eye-catching was totally her style.

Next, Hermione pulled out what she guessed was supposed to be a pair of knickers, even though they seemed to be made out of about eight different red ribbons crisscrossing each other to attach a small triangle of silk down the center. This intimidated her a bit. What Hermione assumed was the matching bra was actually quite pretty, though. It was a very intricate bralette with all sorts of sheer lace patterns in the front and interesting cutouts in the back. Fleur. Definitely Fleur.

Hermione new just from the soft pink colour of the next set that it from Ginny. Despite the excess femininity of the colour and the fact that the knickers were in the style of a thong, Hermione still wasn't quite running for the hills. The set's redeeming point was the bra, which was made of the softest silk Hermione had ever felt and had removable straps. It would make it easier to wear a dress if she so chose.

The final set (and Hermione was sure to give an overly-dramatic wipe of the imaginary sweat on her brow) was once again not as bad as she had expected. Angelina was always a curveball thrower, especially now that she was pregnant, but her set could have been a lot worse. The bra was a shiny, dark purple demi with lots of thin black straps for the shoulder straps. The knickers were a similar fashion, the crotch piece being a rectangle of the same dark purple material with three thick black ribbons connecting the ends to make the hips of the knickers. But when Hermione turned the garment around between her fingers, she was shocked to find that there was a long cutout down the middle of the crotch piece. Ugh! Trust Angelina to buy her some crotchless knickers…

As Hermione observed all seven sets of underwear, she had the sudden urge to try a few of them on…just for research, of course. She knew that she was really curious to figure out how the spiderweb-like knickers that Fleur gave her would work out.

Hermione stripped off her clothing and transfigured the mirror on her wall into a full-length body mirror so she could examine the pieces carefully. All for research, of course…

She tried on Angelina's purple set first and found that she liked the way that the ribbons of the knickers rested on her hips. She peered in the mirror tentatively but found that she didn't look as hideous as she imagined she would. She looked… _sexy_? Perhaps just a little…

Dropping the set from Angelina on the floor next to her, she next tried on the three sets that Audrey chose out for her. All of them were quite comfortable, and Hermione found herself actually looking forward to wearing them. They were practical and comfy enough to wear at work, but there was just something about wearing them that made Hermione feel just a little bit more confident, even though she would be the only one who knew about them.

Next was the soft pink set from Ginny. Hermione must have spent about five minutes staring into the reflection of the thong fabric disappearing between her arse cheeks. She had never so much as tried on a thong in her life, and though it was slightly awkward at first, she became slightly more comfortable with it the longer she wore it.

From the two sets left, Hermione chose to try on the sheer, black lace set from Audrey. Once again, Hermione was shocked at how un-horrified she was. All throughout her teenage and adult years, Hermione had always imagined any sort of lingerie to be terrible and entirely too scandalous for someone like her to wear. But now, staring at the reflection of her nude form clad in only sheer undergarments, Hermione felt something akin to the feeling she had experienced the night of the Yule Ball when examining her reflection in that beautiful periwinkle dress. She felt pretty.

And with that last rush of confidence, Hermione finally felt ready to test out the set from Fleur. She tentatively picked up the knickers and tried to sort out where her legs would go. After twisting and prodding for about a minute, Hermione was pretty sure she found the leg holes between all the red ribbons. She slipped them on awkwardly and slid the bralette over her head. Summoning every inch of her Gryffindor courage, Hermione stepped in front of the mirror. Her jaw dropped.

Though this might be the most adventurous lingerie Hermione could have ever possibly imagined, she was surprised at how hot she looked wearing it. Hermione was sure that Ginny had explained this type of knickers to her once…what had it been? Ouvert? Yes, that was definitely it. Her arse was on complete display as the ribbons crisscrossed over her arse cheeks to create a lovely design, and wrapped around to attach a triangle of fabric only big enough to cover from her clit to her entrance. The bralette wrapped up the entire ensemble and added a girly and almost demure note to the otherwise very sinful outfit.

As Hermione fiddled with the ribbons of the knickers, there was a knock on her door. Her heart skipped a beat. Remus.

"Just a minute!" Hermione called as calmly as she could as she rummaged around her room for something to cover herself with. She managed to find a bathrobe in her wardrobe and scrambled to put it on and tie it up.

She then sped back to the door to open it up. Remus was there, leaning against her doorframe casually, looking cute as ever in his signature oxford button-down and slacks. Hermione's heart sped up again, though for a completely different reason this time.

"Good morning, sleepy," he said teasingly. "I hope you haven't been sleeping all day. It's already half past ten."

"No, I haven't been sleeping, as a matter of fact. I've been looking at some of the things I purchased yesterday," Hermione said as calmly as possible, praying to every higher power that she wasn't blushing.

But Remus didn't seem to notice her blush, as his attention had been caught by something over Hermione's shoulder. _What could he possibly—oh, fucking shit…_

Hermione turned around to find that the pile of lingerie was still lying on the floor only a few feet behind her, and Remus was staring at it with rapt attention. Panicking, Hermione pushed Remus away from the doorframe and shut the door to her bedroom behind them so that they were both standing awkwardly in the cramped hallway.

"I am so—I mean, I forgot to put them away…I just—I'm so sorry!" Hermione said, burying her face in her hands to hide her embarrassment.

There was a moment of silence before Remus softly pulled her hands away from her face. He then lifted her chin with two of his fingers so that she was looking up into his eyes. He had an amused expression on his face, and yet his eyes had darkened in hunger. He looked positively delicious.

"Hermione, did you purchase all that lingerie yesterday?" he asked, his voice about an octave lower and wonderfully rough-sounding.

"Yes," she whispered, not meeting his eyes. She was positively horrified with herself.

"And is that what you've been doing all morning? Have you been trying them all on, seeing what you look like in them?" he asked. His voice sounded so sexy that Hermione couldn't help but look up at his lips. He was looking down at her, looking more aroused than Hermione had ever seen him. She clenched her thighs together as she felt her core clench. She was embarrassed, and yet Remus' reaction was turning her on so much.

"Yes," Hermione repeated, her embarrassment beginning to recede as the tingly feeling of lust started spreading through her body.

Remus looked down from her face to take in the rest of her bathrobe-clad body. Hermione tried not to shiver, and she could feel her pussy beginning to soak the thin knickers, especially as he took a step closer to her, causing her to back into the door behind her. He smirked evilly, and Hermione nearly swooned.

"And are you still wearing some of said lingerie under that bathrobe of yours?" he asked, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. _Merlin_ …

Not trusting her voice, Hermione nodded minutely. Her breathing had become heavy, and her eyelids were heavy with desire.

"Would you be willing to show me?" he asked, though this time a little less confidently. He was asking her permission before going further.

In her lust-crazed state, Hermione very nearly said yes. But then she remembered her idea of saving the ensemble she was currently wearing for Christmas day. She was nearly certain that they would sleep together before then at the pace that they were going, and so she wanted to save what she thought was the sexiest and most festive ensemble for later. But that didn't mean that she didn't want to show off to Remus right now…

"Not this ensemble," Hermione bit her lip.

Remus quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "Not this one?"

"It's just…I'm not quite ready to show you what I'm wearing right now. I'm kind of…well, I'm saving it for later," Hermione said, nearly groaning. Why did she have to be so awkward?

Remus blushed a little and looked away. "That's alright. I understand completely. We can wait."

Hermione was horrified with herself. He thought she didn't want him. On the contrary, she had never felt more ready to sleep with him. She placed her hand on his cheek and gently turned his face so that he looked at her.

"Perhaps you'll let me change so we can pick up from where we left off?"

Remus' eyes brightened instantly, and he nodded a little too enthusiastically. Hermione smiled shyly. "So…meet me inside my bedroom in two minutes?"

He nodded once again, swallowing thickly.

Hermione turned to slip back into her room, but a sudden realization caused her to hesitate. "I…um, I threw out the condoms I always keep in my bedroom when I moved in here."

Remus' eyes widened in realization. "I've got some in my room. I'll go get them."

"Thanks," Hermione blushed, then slipped back into her room and closed the door behind her.

She quickly set to work, stripping from the lingerie Fleur had given to her and slipping on the black, lacy set from Audrey. She then shoved the rest of the lingerie into her wardrobe and shut the doors. She used her wand to quickly make her bed and clean a few other things in the room. And finally, inspecting her reflection in the mirror, Hermione slipped the bathrobe back overtop of the lingerie, cast a spell to make sure her legs were hairless and smooth, and then ran her fingers through her curly locks a few times to make herself more presentable.

By the time she had finished this, Remus was knocking on her door.

"Come in," Hermione muttered just loud enough for him to hear through the door.

He slipped through the door awkwardly, three condoms in his hand. Hermione chuckled quietly. "Looks like someone has great expectations for this," Hermione muttered with a bashful smile.

"From what I saw in that pile earlier, and from what I've pictured in my fantasies, I have no doubt I'll be using at least two," he replied thickly.

He took a tentative step forward, and Hermione mimicked him until they were nearly pressed up against each other. One of Remus' hands threaded through Hermione's hair, the other snaking around to rest on the small of her back. Hermione lifted her heavy arms so that they wrapped around his neck, just as she always did. It was the perfect position for her to run her fingers through his messy hair while they made out.

And make out they did.

All the awkwardness dissipated as they kissed each other to the point of dizziness. Hermione, emboldened by Remus' nips at her bottom lip, decided to let one of her hands explore a little. She dragged it down his jaw, down his neck, chest, and stomach until she reached his belt buckle. She began to slowly undo his belt and slip it out of the loops of his pants.

Remus started to explore a little as well, letting his hands travel down her back before circling back up her sides, feeling the slight curves there. Hermione gasped in pleasure as his hands drifted over the sides of her breasts. She could feel Remus smile into her mouth as he let his hands cup and massage her breasts.

Soon enough, clothing was being shed. It started with Remus, as Hermione untucked his shirt and started undoing his buttons.

"It's not pretty," he muttered against her lips as she was nearing the last few buttons.

"You're right, it won't be because I'm the pretty one. But I happen to know for a fact that it'll be really, _really_ hot," Hermione countered breathily.

Remus shook his head and stopped Hermione's hands with his own. "No, I mean the scars. There are lots. I just don't want for you to be taken off guard."

"Alright, that's fair. In that case, I should warn you that I won't be very pretty either." When Remus frowned at her in confusion, she continued. "Remus, we both fought in a war. I had glass prophecies raining down on me in the battle of the Department of Mysteries. I lived in a forest for months, running from Snatchers constantly. I was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange, for Merlin's sake! We've all got scars, Remus. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

There was a moment of silence before Remus began kissing her again with so much more passion and fire. The intensity was intoxicating, and Hermione redoubled her efforts in unbuttoning his shirt.

Soon after, Hermione felt Remus' fingers pulling at the string of her bathrobe. She closed her eyes and took in a calming breath. This was it.

The bathrobe slipped off her shoulders and glided off her into a heap on the floor. Hermione fought the urge to pick the robe back up and hide behind it. Sure, Hermione was no longer a virgin and had been intimate a good handful of times, but she had never worn something so sexual or bold in front of anyone. Something about it was intimidating, but empowering at the same time.

Remus took in her form with a glazed look in his eyes. "So fucking sexy," he whispered, and Hermione shivered. Remus walked back over to her and ran his hands over the newly exposed skin and undergarments, soon taking the bra off and dropping it on the floor next to the bathrobe. In the need to be closer to each other, Remus pulled Hermione so that their naked torsos were flush against each other.

It wasn't long after that that the rest of the clothing fell to the floor and Hermione led Remus to the bed. And boy, was it fantastic. So fucking fantastic.

They ended up using all three condoms.

 **AN: Yeah, that was absolutely not the way I had planned to go this chapter, but oh well. Please let me know if this was too much sexual detail, not enough, or if I somehow managed to get that sweet spot because I'm not used to writing smut at all. I wasn't sure if people wanted for me to write out the whole shebang (you know, the penis in vagina part) so pretty please let me know your thoughts either in the reviews or through private messaging. Thanks to all and I hope you had a Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate)**


	7. The Seventh Day of Christmas

**AN: Hey guys, I know it has been a while since I last posted. I'm truly sorry. The other day I went on a nine-hour road trip to come and visit my family, and after one night of visiting, we all caught the stomach flu. So after a lot of grossness, I'm finally healthy again and ready to update. I hope you all had a lovely (and not-so-gross) New Year's eve and I wish you all the best for the year 2018. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!**

December 20th—The Seventh Day of Christmas

"Remus?"

"Yes, my dear?"

Hermione blushed at his pet name for her, and Remus loved that blush on her cheeks. It was possibly the most adorable thing he had ever seen. "Can we go out and get a Christmas tree? I really can't stand the thought of Christmas without a tree in the house, even if we don't put any presents under it. I just _really_ want a tree."

Remus considered this for a moment. "You're absolutely right. We must go and do it today. Do you know of any tree farms near London?"

Hermione's face lit up like…well, like a Christmas tree. "No, but we don't need to go to a tree farm for a tree. I know a gorgeous forest that is full of beautiful fir and evergreen trees. We can simply apparate there, cut it down, then shrink it so we can easily apparate back."

"Alright, sounds wonderful. Let's go then," Remus said, standing up and walking to the door.

"But Remus! We're in our pajamas! We can't go out in public looking like—oh, right. We won't be in public," Hermione laughed, smacking herself in the forehead.

"You know, for the brightest witch of your age, you can be a little slow sometimes. The rest of your generation must be pretty dim," Remus teased.

Hermione laughed. "You've met Harry and Ron. They're of about average wit these days." Hermione started to pull on her coat and scarf.

"Yikes. That's a scary thought." Remus feigned a shiver of fright as he started pulling on his winter clothing as well.

Remus took Hermione's arm, and, using side-along apparition, Hermione brought him to the Forest of Dean.

As they took in their surroundings, Hermione realized that she had apparated them right into the small clearing where she, Ron, and Harry had stayed during their hunt for the Horcruxes. It felt like an eternity ago.

"Where are we?" Remus asked, admiring the beauty of the place.

"The Forest of Dean. My parents used to bring me here as a child. The last time I was here, it was winter and Harry, Ron, and I were trying to track Voldemort's Horcruxes while trying to figure out how to destroy them," Hermione said softly.

She wasn't ecstatic to be back, but she didn't regret coming either. It was sort of nice to see how far she'd come from being a little girl camping, then a teenage girl in the middle of a war, and now an adult coming to get a Christmas tree for the house that she and her boyfriend lived in. What a refreshing thought.

Remus, on the other hand, felt really awkward at the thought of being here now. He didn't know much about what happened during that year that Hermione, Harry, and Ron ran away, but he could guess that it would have been pretty awful. Three seventeen-year-olds trying to survive alone in the forest with the weight of saving the world from a dark lord on their shoulders…probably wasn't much of a party.

"Are you alright, Hermione? We can just go to a regular old tree farm if you want…"

"Don't worry, Remus. I'm fine. There are much scarier places to visit. Hogwarts, for example, and yet I still go there.

Remus chuckled. "Not to mention you work at the Ministry of Magic, a place where you fought Death Eaters as a fifteen-year-old. You really are one tough chick, Hermione," he pointed out, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close to him.

Hermione looked up at Remus lustfully. "Kiss me, Remus."

He happily complied. After a few minutes of making out like two hormone-crazed teenagers, Hermione pushed Remus away. "We should stop now while we can," she smirked.

Remus groaned. "Do we have to?"

"Yes, we do. It's much too cold to shag in the middle of the forest, and I have a feeling that's the direction we were headed in fifteen seconds ago."

"You're probably right, as per usual," he smiled with a frustrated sigh.

"Of course I am, though I have to admit that the thought of you pushing me up against a tree…hot."

Remus groaned again as Hermione sauntered away teasingly. And so together, they started searching for the perfect Christmas tree. After about ten minutes of searching, they found a six-foot tree that looked positively picturesque. They had to have it.

Hermione cast a strong severing hex at the tree and watched with satisfaction as it fell to its side, flinging snow at Remus. She laughed at the indignant expression on his face as he dusted off the snow from his coat and cheek.

"You're practically asking for a snowball fight, you know. And I'm warning you, James Potter taught me all of his tricks, so I am quite the fearsome snowball fight opponent."

"Hit me with one snowball, and you get no sex until the new year."

Remus' face fell in fear at the serious look on Hermione's face, and he went over to pick the tree up with his tail between his legs (pun definitely intended). They shrunk the tree so that it fit in Remus' coat pocket, then apparated back home. Only when they got back and were about to enlarge the tree did Hermione notice that they had no tree stand or ornaments.

"We could always go buy some?" Remus suggested.

"Oh, but ornaments are so expensive these days. We can't just go out and buy hundreds of lights and ornaments all in one go. Maybe we could go visit Mrs. Weasley! I know for a fact that the Weasleys have three times more ornaments than they ever use. They'd definitely lend some to us."

"Alright, and perhaps we could invite them back to decorate the tree with us. It would only be polite since it's their ornaments."

"Sounds great, only…" Hermione trailed off, unsure.

"Only?"

"Are we telling people about us yet? I don't mind if you still want to keep us quiet a little, perhaps get people comfortable with the idea of us spending lots of time together before we drop the 'we're together' bomb?" Hermione explained at a lightning tempo.

"Calm down, Hermione," Remus said, rubbing the sides of her arms soothingly, "if the speed at which you just said all that tells me anything, I take it you aren't completely ready to go public?"

Hermione's head dropped. Was there a man out there as perfect as Remus Lupin? "Please know that it has nothing to do with you. It's just that I'm not ready to tell all the Weasleys about us—especially Ron. I'll be ready soon, just not today. Is that alright with you?"

Remus kissed Hermione on the forehead. "Of course, my dear. Mum's the word for now," Remus dropped his head so that his lips were touching the shell of her ear. "But just know that as soon as you're ready, I'll want to shout this from the rooftops."

Hermione shivered and nodded, once again lustful. How did he do that? He made her go from bashful to horny in less than five seconds. Nobody had ever made her body react in this way before.

"Alright, so are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Hermione asked, her head now spinning from the close proximity between them. How did he manage to always smell so good?

"To apparate to the burrow, silly," Remus said, all the huskiness and desire now gone from his voice, almost as though they had never been there in the first place.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Let's go."

Hermione caught the tiniest glimpse of a smug look on Remus' face before he spun on the spot and vanished into thin air. He was teasing her! He was getting revenge for when she laughed at him back in the forest. The bastard…

Hermione followed suit and apparated just outside the wards around the Burrow. Together—though with an innocent amount of distance between them—Hermione and Remus walked through the frozen marsh area and up to the front door. Mrs. Weasley must have seen them coming because the door opened before they had even reached it.

"Hermione! How lovely to see you!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, enveloping Hermione in one of her world-famous bear hugs. "Oh, and Remus, too! How wonderful to see you both!" she beamed, giving Remus a motherly hug as well.

"It's good to see you too, Molly," Remus smiled politely. That was another thing that Hermione loved about Remus; he was so polite to everyone, even to those whom he disliked.

"Oh, won't you both come in? Nearly all the family's home and they'd all love to see you both," Mrs. Weasley gushed. Hermione was now starting to feel bad that she hadn't visited Mrs. Weasley in so long. It was obvious how much she missed seeing Hermione, and Hermione was just beginning to realize how much she had missed her mother figure as well. The Weasleys were as close a thing as she had to a real family, and so Hermione felt awful for not having visited sooner.

Remus and Hermione quickly stepped into the kitchen of the burrow, eager to escape the cold. "You said most of the family is home? Who isn't?" Hermione asked, crossing her fingers that it would be Ron.

"Well, Charlie will be coming home from Romania tomorrow. Oh, and Ron is currently out with his girlfriend," Mrs. Weasley explained, and if Hermione hadn't been searching for the hint of dislike in the word 'girlfriend', she might have missed it. But it was definitely there. Just the hint of disgust on her face, disappearing before Hermione could get a really good look at it.

"Hermione! Professor Lupin! What are you doing here?" Ginny asked excitedly as she crossed from the living room to the kitchen, where Hermione and Remus were removing their winter clothes.

"Visiting, of course," Hermione chuckled, though Ginny and Mrs. Weasley didn't look entirely convinced. "Oh, fine! Remus and I want to put up a Christmas tree in Grimmauld Place but we have no ornaments and we were hoping to borrow some from you. But we also wanted to visit you all! We could have gone out and bought some, but we thought it might be nice to get together with you guys and perhaps we could all go over to Grimmauld Place to decorate? Only if you wanted, though…"

"Ooh, that sounds like fun! I love decorating Christmas trees! I'd totally be up for it!" Ginny squealed.

"We'd love to have the entire family over for dinner, Molly. It gets lonely when it's just the two of us in the house," Remus said.

"George, is that Professor Lupin that I hear?" a familiar voice asked loudly from the top of the stairs.

"I believe it is, Fred," another familiar voice responded from the same area.

"What do you reckon he's here for?"

"I dunno. Perhaps he's here to collect that essay that we never handed in back in our fifth year?"

"Never handed in or never finished?"

"Probably both."

And with that, the Weasley twins descended the staircase with their most charming smiles plastered on their faces, obviously hoping to charm their way out of trouble.

"Good day, Professor! Fancy seeing you here! I do hope you're having a wonderful holiday," one twin—Fred, if Hermione had to guess—said in his most saccharine voice.

"Oh! Hello, mum! Wow, may I just say that you look lovely in that tartan robe of yours this afternoon!" the other twin commented.

"The colour really brings out your eyes," the first one added.

"Boys! When will you ever grow up? You are much too old to play these games with me anymore. And besides, you haven't even said hello to Hermione yet in your foolish attempt at escaping trouble," Mrs. Weasley scolded.

Apparently, the boys hadn't yet noticed Hermione standing just a little behind Remus, as they both exclaimed "Hermione Granger!" when they found her and enveloped her in a big hug at the same time. This resulted in Hermione being crushed between the tall, stocky frames of the Weasley twins, with her head being squeezed between their chests due to her shortness.

"WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH, HERMIONE! _Get us out of here and you can get any one thing from our shop, free_!" the twin on her left whispered loudly to her, causing her and Remus to chuckle, and Mrs. Weasley to scowl.

"I missed you guys, too."

"Did I hear someone say 'Hermione Granger'?" Bill said, walking in from the living room with five-year-old Victoire on his back.

"Auntie Hermione! Look at me! _Do the thing, Daddy_!" Victoire ordered Bill, and Hermione laughed as Bill sighed comically and began spinning around on the spot. Victoire was giggling incessantly, and Hermione was again hit with that feeling of regret for not visiting in so long.

"That looks like so much fun, Victoire! Do you think your Daddy will let me have a go at it?" Hermione laughed.

Victoire fell into yet another fit of giggles. "Of course he won't, Auntie Hermione! You're much too big!"

Hermione feigned a forlorn sigh. "Oh, you're probably right."

Bill crouched down to drop Victoire from his back, then walked over to hug Hermione warmly. "How are you, love?" he asked.

"I'm well, how are you?"

"Positively wonderful," Bill smiled before going over to shake Remus' hand. "Remus! It's been a while. How are you? Still looking for work?"

"When am I not looking for work? And I'm fine, thank you for asking."

Hermione couldn't help but admire Remus in this different setting. This was as close as Hermione would ever get to introducing her boyfriend to her family, and Remus was faring admirably. _Well, it's not as though they're all strangers. And the Weasleys don't know that we're a couple yet…_

"Hermione and Remus just offered to have us all over at Grimmauld Place for dinner and to help trim their tree this evening. What do you all think?"

"Sounds like fun! The girls would love that, wouldn't they Percy?" Audrey commented to Percy as they, too, entered the kitchen. Hermione embraced each of them and then introduced Audrey to Remus as she was too old to ever have had him at Hogwarts.

Soon enough, the entire Weasley family (bar Ron and Charlie, of course) was gathered in the kitchen, preparing to apparate (or in the case of the children and their parents, Floo) to Grimmauld Place.

"Bring a box of decorations, everyone! Oh, except the little ones of course—that means you, little Molly dear," Mrs. Weasley ordered, "Alright, everyone who is using the Floo network, line up by the fireplace. Everyone else…well, I hope I don't have to give you instructions on how to apparate. Let's move!"

Hermione looked to Remus, who gave her a small smile and a discreet wink, and she tried to pretend she didn't see Ginny with a shit-eating grin out of the corner of her eye. Hermione turned on the spot, apparating back into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place to take stock of how much food they had. She looked through the fridge and cupboards, thinking that there was enough food for a big batch of lasagna, mashed potatoes, and garden salad. Remus joined her after a minute and agreed that he could definitely cook all that with a little bit of help. Hermione gladly volunteered, thinking it would give her a little alone time with him this evening.

All around the house, there were cracks of apparition and the sound of the roaring green flames of the Floo network. Soon enough, Christmas music was being played on Sirius' old record player, the Weasley twins were throwing a Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework show for the kids in the living room and drinks were being handed out. Bill, Mr. Weasley, and Percy all began helping to fit the tree into the spare tree stand that had been brought. Chuckling at the utter chaos that was created anywhere where five or more Weasleys got together, Hermione and Remus decided to start on supper.

"Okay, could you chop up the potatoes into quarters, put them in a big saucepan, dear? Yes, that size should do—fill it with enough water to cover the potatoes, put a little salt in, then bring them to a boil, please? Thanks, love."

"Is this good?"

"Yes, now just reduce the heat to medium-low and wait about fifteen minutes. While you're waiting, you can help me by placing a layer of noodles at the bottom of that dish. Thanks, love."

Once the lasagna was in the oven and the salad and potatoes were made, Hermione and Remus had nothing left to but wait. Hermione started walking to the kitchen door, wanting to join the others, but Remus had her pinned up against the kitchen wall before she could so much as reach for the doorknob. Hermione squeaked as Remus began snogging her with near-violent passion.

"Why is it that even the simplest things like watching you cook make me hard as a rock?" he whispered into her ear. He then kissed down her jaw as he pressed his erection into her hip.

"Fuck, Remus. Do you think we could get away with shagging in the kitchen without being caught?" Hermione moaned as she let her hands explore Remus' back under his shirt.

"I seriously doubt it, though I promise that we will christen the kitchen after everyone leaves."

"I'd be perfectly alright with that…" Hermione sighed as Remus started sucking on her neck.

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen opened and in came Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. Mrs. Weasley let out a gasp of shock as she saw Remus jump away from Hermione, trying to make it look as though they hadn't been getting intimate near the food.

"Oh! Well, we were going to offer to help, but it looks like you two are just fine on your own. I— _Ginny, stop that now_!—I think that we'll just go back to the living room. Give us a shout if you need us. _Oh, Ginny_!" Mrs. Weasley said awkwardly, looking back and forth between Hermione and Lupin with a combination of reproof and happiness in her eyes. Ginny was now having trouble stifling her laughter, and Hermione was sure that her own face was beet-red.

Both the Weasley women left the kitchen, and Remus scrubbed his face with his hands. "Hermione, I'm sorry. I know you weren't ready yet…"

"Remus, it's fine. It wasn't those two that I was worried about. It's more Ronald that I'm afraid of."

"Is there anything I should know about your relationship with him? I mean, I obviously know you two were together for a while, but should I worry about what his reaction to us will be?"

Hermione sighed. "I don't know. He has a girlfriend now, but he can be such a jealous prick. Honestly, just ignore him as much as you can. I'm sure he'll be civil enough because he knows that I have no qualms about telling his mother of his shenanigans."

"Alright. Thank you for telling me," Remus sighed. He didn't seem too keen to deal with Ron either.

"Hey, look on the bright side: think of all the consequences we'd be facing now if you hadn't refused my proposal of shagging. That would have been awful…" Hermione giggled.

"Too true. Maybe it's time we checked on our food…" Remus said, his cheeks blushing at the thought of Mrs. Weasley catching them in a truly compromising position.

"I agree. Let's eat," Hermione smiled, kissing him on the cheek.

The rest of the evening was a blast. The lasagna that Remus had made, as always, was positively heavenly. Hermione's potatoes and salad weren't too bad either, just not nearly as good as the perfection of Remus' cooking.

After eating, Hermione, Remus, and the Weasleys all gathered around the tree and began decorating. Bill lifted Victoire onto his shoulders so that she could place the star on top, while little Molly and Lucy had fun decorating the bottom branches, as they couldn't reach much further up. Lucy had actually taken to asking Hermione to lift her up so she could place all her swimming swan and flying cardinal ornaments higher up on the tree. Some of the adults grew so drunk they began singing Christmas carols. The Weasley twins even did their own parody of Baby it's Cold Outside (Pulling Cool Pranks Inside):

 _George: To Filch's dismayyyyy_

 _Fred: We're pulling cool pranks Inside_

 _George: Causing disarayyyyy_

 _Fred: We're pulling cool pranks inside_

 _George: This evening we've beeeeen_

 _Fred: Hoping you'll fall for it_

 _George: Out spreading liiiiiiceeee_

And of course, after all the Weasleys left the house that night, Remus fulfilled his promise to Hermione by shagging her on every large and sturdy surface that they could find in the kitchen (which, surprisingly, there were quite a few of).

"Sirius would be disgusted by us if he ever found out," Hermione said after all the amazing shagging. She was now washing and disinfecting the table, which coincidentally was now her favourite spot in the kitchen.

"Actually, I think he'd probably be proud of us," Remus said, smirking. Knowing Sirius, Remus was probably right.


	8. The Eighth Day of Christmas

**AN: One last post before I have to go back to school...bummer. I decided to go ahead and actually write out my lemons rather than just lead up to them, so here you go! Enjoy!**

December 21st—The Eighth Day of Christmas

After all the fun they had had yesterday, Remus and Hermione had decided to host a Christmas Eve party at Grimmauld Place (with Sirius' permission, of course). They spent the morning sending invitations to everybody who had been part of the Order of the Phoenix during the Second Wizarding War, inviting them and their families/dates to come sometime in the afternoon and to bring a dish for a potluck dinner.

After finishing sending out all the invitations Remus suggested that he and Hermione should go out to see a movie or go ice skating or something. Feeling kind of restless from spending the morning cooped up inside Grimmauld Place, Hermione agreed to go ice skating.

And so after lunch, they went out to the rink with some shoes transfigured into ice skates. Hermione was extremely rusty, as the last time she had gone skating had been with her parents in France many years ago, but with Remus' help, she was able to pick the skill back up with relative ease.

"So tell me something about yourself," Hermione said as she rounded the curve of the rink unsteadily.

Remus laughed. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Everything! Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like? What are your Christmas traditions? Do you have any family? If we're going to be a couple, we need to know things about each other. I know things about you right now like you're a werewolf, you're an amazing cook, you listen to good music, you're probably the most courteous person I know…stuff like that. But I know nothing about your past, and you don't know much about mine. I want to learn you."

Remus smiled down at her lovingly, causing Hermione's head to swim delightfully and nearly making her fall on her butt. "I really shouldn't be surprised. It was only a matter of time before you asked me for some new learning material."

Hermione giggled. "I'm sorry, but I can't help being a swot."

"No, I suppose you can't," Remus grinned, taking her hand in his. "Alright…childhood. I grew up just outside Derbyshire, in a lovely little rural area with my parents; no brothers or sisters. I was bitten at the age of two years old by Fenrir Greyback, and lived my childhood in a bit of a blur of pain and loneliness. Christmases were always the highlight of my year, though. I loved playing in the snow, making snowmen, and going tobogganing with my father. I've always found that my December transformations have always been the least painful because I'm able to block out the pain with happy thoughts of Christmas.

School has always been so important to me, as I'm sure you've noticed. I remember, as a six-year-old, begging my parents to let me go to school and learn like the other kids do. Of course, my lycanthropy wouldn't allow it, but my mother made it up to me by homeschooling me. I was so happy to find that I would actually be able to go to Hogwarts and meet other witches and wizards my age. Turns out, I was one of the only kids in my year at Hogwarts who could do their timetables and could talk about ancient civilizations and Muggle World Wars.

Meeting James, Sirius, and Peter was the best thing that ever happened to me, despite all the pain it caused me down the road. They were my first and best friends I ever had. Hogwarts was the time of my life. As soon as all four of us had turned seventeen, Dumbledore offered us each a spot in the Order of the Phoenix. We all accepted excitedly, not thinking twice about how scary things would get when we were directly involved in the war. I don't think I need to tell you about how our friend group was ripped apart after that. I spent the next twelve years mourning the loss of all my friends, drifting from job to job in a lonely existence. You know what happened after that."

The whole story had taken been told over about four turns of the rink they were skating on. Hermione looked up at Remus with sad but understanding eyes. "But you won't be lonely anymore. I'm afraid I've become rather attached to you at this point, Remus Lupin, so I won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Remus chuckled.

There was a brief silence, where Remus looked down at Hermione expectantly. "Oh! Is it my turn? Alright, where to begin? I had a very regular childhood. Almost oddly regular, since I'm a witch. I only ever had two accidental bouts of magic by the time I got my Hogwarts letter, and even then, the magic was nothing exceptional. One happened when I was about eight years old and I was playing Hide-and-Go-Seek with my friends. I had no spot to hide and my friend had finished counting. I somehow managed to unlock the shed at school that was always locked, and then lock myself in there until I won the game. The other accidental magic was when I got a 75% on a test, and somehow managed to make the paper vanish in my hands. Nothing too exceptional or scary.

I lived with my parents, with no siblings either. My parents were dentists who rarely allowed me to eat any sort of sweets or puddings. Hogwarts was the time of my life, as I could eat whatever I wanted without my parents being there to stop me. That's part of the reason I love Christmas so much; the feast at Hogwarts was always comprised of the most succulent, teeth-rotting foods imaginable. So I guess you could say my Christmas tradition is stuffing my face with food.

Believe it or not, I positively despised Harry and Ron when I first met them. I regarded them as good-for-nothing troublemakers who were only interested in stirring the pot and losing points for Gryffindor. But after they saved me from being killed by a Troll on our first Halloween at Hogwarts, we all became the best of friends. Being friends with Harry and Ron makes for a most chaotic time at Hogwarts, as I'm sure you can relate to with your Hogwarts friends, but I don't regret any of it."

Another pause. "We should move onto a lighter topic of conversation before one of us bursts into tears," Remus suggested, causing Hermione to laugh in agreement.

"Alright: favourite colour?"

"Blue," Remus replied, "and yours?"

"Same."

"Favourite chocolate?"

"Oh, of course you'd ask that," Hermione laughed, "dark."

"Mine's milk, though I totally approve of your answer."

"Would you have disapproved of any?"

"Hmm…good point."

Hermione laughed again. "Favourite alcoholic beverage?"

"Firewhiskey. There's just something about it that I prefer to Muggle alcohol…I don't really know what. You?"

"Either white wine or vodka, depending on the night."

"When and to whom did you lose your virginity?"

"Should I be worried that you'll beat the poor bloke up?" Hermione asked with an amused smirk.

"Depends on how he treated you," Remus replied evilly.

"Oh, well in that case, it was Viktor Krum in the summer after my fifth year when my parents and I did a tour through Europe and passed through Bulgaria. And he treated me very well, by the way, so don't go and get yourself arrested by his bodyguards."

"In that case, I won't. Mine was to Mary MacDonald in my seventh year. She's no longer alive, so I don't think you have to worry about her," Remus joked lightly.

After the skating, the couple went out to get some coffee and walk around a little more. As snow like this was so rarely seen in London, they didn't want to miss out on enjoying it. It was really fun seeing all the massive buildings and rooftops covered in the massive layer of snow. Shop owners were shovelling snow off their roofs, and people were trying to finish clearing some of the sidewalks and not-so-busy paths.

Hermione started getting cold, so the pair decided to apparate back home. There, they drank some eggnog in front of the crackling living room fireplace. Remus had become distracted by the photo of the maid milking a cow on the carton of the eggnog, wondering if it wouldn't be more appropriate to show a chicken laying an egg instead, that he startled a little when Hermione spoke, breaking the comfortable silence in which they had fallen.

"So, we need to talk about us," Hermione said seriously.

"What about us?" Remus asked.

"Well, something tells me that I'm going to have a hard time staying away from you at out Christmas Eve party, and there will be lots of curious children and Weasleys roaming the house. What if we get caught again?"

"Are you meaning to say that you plan to seduce me at our own party?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you meaning to say that that is out of the question?" Hermione said with a caught-with-hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression.

Remus burst out laughing. "You are a naughty girl, Hermione Granger."

"Hmmm…perhaps my Professors never punished me enough as a child. Care to rectify that mistake, Professor?" she purred. All this talk about sex had reminded her of how much she wanted to have it right now.

"Well, that depends on what sort of punishment is needed. If it's writing lines, then I'm afraid I wouldn't care to supervise that. Much too boring…" he joked, not fully realizing that Hermione wasn't joking anymore. She was seducing.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of my offenses, Professor. I've been much more naughty than you think. Care for me to show you?" Hermione purred, playing with the waistband of her jeans just obviously enough for Remus to catch on.

Hermione was certain she actually saw his eyes darken with desire. "Perhaps you'd better show me," he replied, his voice quite a bit deeper than it was just seconds ago.

Hermione smirked and stood up from the couch, standing near the fire with her back facing him. She had never done anything like this, so she didn't have the confidence to go all out and do a strip dance. But still, Hermione would definitely put the 'tease' in strip tease…

She started off by taking off her socks, certain that she'd somehow slip on the hardwood floors if she didn't. She really didn't want to mess this up. Next, with her back still to him, she released her long curls from the ponytail they were in, gently tousling them with her fingers so they laid nicely on her head and cascaded down to the middle of her back.

Grabbing the hem of her t-shirt, Hermione began to slide it up her back, revealing her skin inch by inch, almost torturously slowly. Once she had pulled it off her head, she let it fall in a heap on the floor. She realized that the underwear she was wearing today—the light pink set from Ginny—would go perfectly with her naughty schoolgirl act.

The skin of her face and stomach were beginning to get too warm from being so close to the fire, so she chose this moment to turn around and face Remus. And boy, did she like what she saw. His pupils were almost the size of his irises, and a bulge was definitely starting to grow in his lap.

Hermione smiled seductively and released the button from the hole in her jeans, beginning to remove her pants. She hooked her thumbs in the sides of her jeans, then, at the last minute, decided to turn around to give Remus the full view of her scandalous knickers. She slowly pulled the jeans down over her hips, revealing her arse to him as seductively as she could by bending at the waist to release her ankles from her jeans.

Abandoning her clothes on the floor, clad only in her light pink bra and thong, Hermione walked back over to Remus and perched herself right on his lap, facing him with her legs spread around his and knees resting on the couch. She was practically straddling him while he was still fully clothed, and she loved the reaction she got as a result of it. He looked like a man whose dreams were all coming true right before his eyes, and Hermione's confidence skyrocketed. This excess confidence caused Hermione to act even more seductively than she would have thought herself capable of.

"See what I mean, Professor? I'm much too naughty for my own good…" Hermione whispered in Remus' ear, enjoying the feel of his stubble on her cheek.

"You're quite right, Miss Granger," Remus practically choked out, trying to snap out of his own arousal. "How do you propose we punish you?"

"I think I have an idea, and I'm sure that it won't be nearly as boring as writing lines…" Hermione trailed off while sliding off his lap to kneel between his legs.

As soon as the realization clicked, Remus' eyes bulged and he began stuttering. "H-Hermione! Y-you don't have to—I mean, I would never expect you to—"

"Hush, Remus," Hermione soothed, rubbing the outsides of his thighs, "I know you don't expect this of me, and that's why I want to. Plus, it's not like I've never done this…I'm quite the naughty girl, remember?"

"No, it's not that—I mean, nobody has ever…" Remus stammered, his face turning red with embarrassment.

"Nobody has ever given you a blow job, Remus?" Hermione asked, totally confused. Remus shook his head in a vehement 'no'. "Well, then you're going to enjoy my punishment much more than I thought!" Hermione smirked evilly, before unbuttoning his trousers.

Remus let out a cross between a gargle and a groan. "Merlin, Hermione. You're going to be the death of me!"

Hermione smirked up at him as she pulled his now fully erect dick out of his pants. She started by pumping him a few times, just to tease him a little before beginning to suck on the head. It had been a while since Hermione had last performed fellatio on anyone, so she was excited to do it for Remus, especially since she would be his first. Something about that realization made her want to make it so much better for him, and so she decided to tease him a bit.

She took the head out of her mouth and began to lick the cock from base to head, making sure to pay special attention to any veins and to the underside. Remus was already looking like he was getting close, so Hermione decided to slow down even more. She stopped using her mouth, and simply started playing gently with his balls.

"How are you liking it so far?" Hermione asked innocently, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer if all his grunts and groans were anything to go by.

Remus just simply nodded enthusiastically and started muttering something that sounded like "don't you dare fucking stop". Hermione smiled devilishly and decided it was time to go all in (pun totally intended). In one swift movement, Hermione had engulfed his dick in her mouth as far as she could. Remus groaned, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as she started to suck on him and bob her head. It was really too much fun to watch Remus' reactions, especially as he got closer to the edge.

His reactions were turning her on so much that she let out an involuntary groan into his dick, causing him to accidentally buck. Hermione gagged and had to take her mouth off his dick so she could cough. Remus started panicking.

"Hermione! I am so, so sorry! I—I didn't mean to, I tried so hard not to. Is there anything I can do?"

Hermione finished coughing but was disappointed that that had ruined the mood. "Remus, I'm fine. Seriously, it's happened many times before. Don't worry about it. Choking and bucking are both perfectly normal. Please try to relax so I can finish…" Hermione urged sweetly, pushing him back down on the couch.

Remus tried to argue some more, but Hermione didn't let him. "You're so sexy when I suck you. I really want to see that again. So unless you weren't enjoying it…"

"Well of course I was enjoying it, but I hurt you! I'm scared of doing it again!"

"You didn't hurt me. I'm absolutely fine. It was uncomfortable for a second, but it was worth it after all the pleasure I was getting from it!"

Remus looked confused. "You were getting pleasure from it?"

"Of course I was!" Hermione laughed. "Haven't you noticed that I've only been using one hand on you? I've been rubbing myself with my other. Watching you writhe around like that was making me too horny. I've been getting off on it the entire time."

Remus seemed to consider this for a second. "Fine, but I want you to be careful. Don't take me too deeply."

"What if I do? Will you punish me?" Hermione teased.

"Just for that, I think that cheeky mouth of yours ought to be filled up again," Remus teased back, running his fingers through her hair as she knelt between his legs again.

"Yes, sir!"

And with that, they continued from where they left off. After working for a few more minutes, Remus was on the edge again. Hermione had decided that Remus probably wasn't ready for her to swallow, so she sucked on his balls as he came, letting his jizz fly onto his own stomach and the couch.

After he had finished, he had been adamant that he return the favour, which Hermione did not complain to at all, since watching him go over the edge had turned her on so much that her pussy had started throbbing. It didn't take very much time or effort for her to be thrashing around on the couch, screaming Remus' name as he tried his hand at cunnilingus.

Hermione made a mental note in her sated haze to thank the girls profusely for their Christmas gifts. They _definitely_ weren't disappointing.


	9. The Ninth Day of Christmas

**AN: Sorry it's been so long, and it's likely to be a little bit of a wait again. Exams are upon me and so I'm pretty busy and don't have much time for writing. But have faith in me! I will not be dropping this story when it's so close to being finished. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

December 22nd—The Ninth Day of Christmas

With three days left before Christmas, Hermione and Remus decided it was about time that they decorated the house. All the details were set for a Christmas Eve party at Grimmauld Place, and so it now fell upon Hermione and Remus to set up the house, as it had been their idea.

And so, moving the box of leftover decorations into the hallway, Remus and Hermione got to work. Hermione had suggested that they do most of the work the Muggle way, as it was so much more fun that way. Remus agreed to the request, curious as to what could be so great about decorating without magic. It turned out to be hard work, but a wonderful type of work all the same. Christmas decorating alone was fun enough, but decorating with your lover was a total blast.

"Hermione! Watch for the—well, never mind," Remus laughed as Hermione tripped over a string of lights on the floor behind her. Hermione shot him a dirty look, but wasn't able to suppress her smile. Remus was just so happy and carefree today, and it made her heart warm. She made a mental note to give Remus blowjobs much more often if this was the result.

Together, Remus and Hermione had chosen some upbeat music from Sirius' collection to play on the music player, and they both goofed off dancing ridiculously as they wrapped extendable garlands around the banisters and lights around door frames. Remus couldn't help but watch, mesmerized, as his lady danced to the songs playing. The way she wiggled her hips and swayed to the beat of the music was unbearably sexy. Hermione had even caught him a few times staring at her, but something about their activities the previous night had made Remus so much more shameless around her. After how intimate they had been, Remus wasn't very nervous about always being a gentleman around Hermione anymore. He was beginning to understand why Sirius was…well, Sirius.

If Hermione was being honest with herself, she didn't mind Remus' staring as much as she made him think she did. It actually felt quite nice to be so obviously desired by her lover. It was a huge confidence booster.

Remus reached down into the box, pulling out a bough of mistletoe. He waggled his eyebrows at Hermione goofily at Hermione as he waved it above his head like a little bell.

"You wish," she laughed as she snatched it from his hand. Remus fake pouted.

"How the hell are we supposed to put that up without magic, anyways?" he pointed out, crossing his arms at her rejection.

"Easy. All you need is a chair and a spotter, and I have both right in front of me," Hermione explained, grabbing a wooden chair from the adjacent sitting room and pulling it to stand under the large doorframe to the living room. "Come spot me. Knowing my balance, there's a good chance that I fall while trying this."

Remus helped Hermione onto the chair and held her hips as she tied the bough to a nail sticking out of the door trim. A cheeky smirk grew on Remus' face as he realized that Hermione's arse was right in front of him. He couldn't help but admire it and just how lucky he was to not only have a witch with a personality, but also a sexy body.

"You do realize that I can feel your breath on my arse through my pants, right?" Hermione pointed out without even looking down at him.

"Well you weren't complaining about my breath being around there last night, were you?"

Hermione whipped her head around to smack him upside the head, almost losing her balance in the process. "Remus Lupin, you are positively terrible," she scolded, trying to hold back her laughter. Remus simply grinned unabashedly.

As Hermione finished securing the mistletoe, Remus had a wonderful realization. "Hermione Granger, I do believe that we are currently standing under the mistletoe. As is tradition, you are now obligated to give me a kiss."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his cheekiness, but was actually all too happy to comply. Still standing on the stool, she bent down to kiss him on the lips. It started off slow and romantic, but it soon began to heat up a little.

The chair had been kicked haphazardly to the side, and Hermione's legs were now wrapped around Remus' waist as they kissed hungrily. Just as Remus had pushed Hermione up against a wall and started fondling her arse, Hermione caught sight of something moving in her peripheral. She let out a squeak of horror and turned her head, only to see a gleeful looking Sirius Black. He was leaning against one of the newly-decorated door frames with what looked like a glass of firewhiskey in his hand, looking thoroughly amused. Hermione nearly died of embarrassment.

"Oh please, don't stop on my account. I'm quite fit to entertain myself with the booze cabinet while you two finish up," he smirked, swirling the contents of his glass before taking a large gulp of it.

Remus was so surprised that he actually dropped Hermione, causing her legs to flop to the ground and her knees to buckle ungracefully under her. She shot him a dirty look, which he only returned with a look of apology and extreme embarrassment. Hermione rolled her eyes at him. She didn't honestly care about Sirius knowing about their relationship, so she wasn't nearly as mortified as Remus was. Plus, she hadn't been the one fondling his arse, so she had much less to be embarrassed about.

After a moment of awkward silence, Hermione shrugged her shoulders and excused herself to go fix herself up a little. She was sure she was looking awfully dishevelled, and she knew that Sirius would soon begin asking really awkward and inappropriate questions and Hermione didn't want to be present for that. Best leave the two remaining Marauders alone for a little.

Once Hermione was out of earshot, Remus began to rant angrily to Sirius. "I can't believe you, Padfoot! You couldn't have knocked on the door before letting yourself in, rather than so blatantly disrespecting our privacy? Fuck! Nobody was supposed to know!"

"Whoah! Calm down, Moony! I won't tell anyone. I know how fun dirty little secrets can be, especially when they're that young. I won't spoil your fun," Sirius chuckled, giving Remus a knowing wink. "You've honestly surprised me, Moony. I would never have thought you the type to have a shag buddy, not to mention one half your age!"

"Wha—shag bud—OH MERLIN NO! Hermione is by no means just a dirty little secret or a shag buddy! Sirius, you sick motherfucker! Oh my God, what is wrong with you…"

As realization finally sunk into Sirius, he couldn't help but burst out into a boisterous fit of giggles. "Merlin, don't tell me you've fallen for little Hermione! Oh, this is just too rich! Not two weeks ago you were scolding me for even suggesting you date someone, and here you are with Harry's best friend, snogging her brains out and defending her honour. What a plot twist! It's positively brilliant!"

Remus was sure his cheeks were bright red by now. "Shut the hell up, Padfoot! She might hear you," Remus scolded as he ushered Sirius into the sitting room, turning off the record player and closing all the doors so that they could speak privately. Thank Merlin Hermione left, because he had a feeling that Sirius was going to begin asking some extremely inappropriate questions. Heck, even Remus didn't want to be here right now.

"So I take it this is a recent turn of events?" Sirius asked, settling himself down in an armchair and not bothering to hide his glee at Remus' utter discomfort and embarrassment.

"Yes. It only started only about a week ago. Living with each other in such close proximity all the time proved to be hard without developing any sort of feelings."

"If by feelings you mean sexual tension, then yeah, I'd bet it was tough!" Sirius guffawed.

Remus had to chuckle. Though horniness wasn't the biggest cause for his relationship with Hermione, it certainly had been a large factor.

"I bet she's a killer fuck. The bookworms and nice girls are always the best fucks. Is the sex great?"

"Sirius, I'm not—"

"HA! Look at that blush! She's bloody fantastic, isn't she? Hot damn, Moony! A blush of that intensity must mean she's brilliant. Though that really shouldn't surprise me. Little Hermione's always been pretty brilliant at everything…"

"Sirius, can you just shut the fuck up for a second? Stop calling her 'little Hermione' as if she's a small child, because she's not. She's a fully grown woman capable of making her own decisions, and this is more than just for sex. We're in an actual relationship. So please stop asking horribly perverted questions about our sex life! It's embarrassing and creepy," Remus scolded.

Sirius looked stunned. "Shit. You've really fallen for her, haven't you?" he asked, though it wasn't a question.

Remus nodded. There was an awkward silence as they both digested everything that just happened.

"So…" Sirius trailed off, trying to disturb the peace like only he could, "does this mean that you'd be opposed to a threesome?"

Remus opened his mouth to give Sirius another verbal lashing, but the door opened and Hermione walked in before he could. Remus was slightly relieved to see that she had changed out of her low-cut tank top and put on a proper t-shirt that covered all the areas that Sirius was liable to ogle.

"Sirius, there's no way in hell I'd ever participate in any sort of sexual activity with you," she laughed lightly, crossing the room to sit next to Remus on the love seat. "Who knows what sort of diseases you have from all those one-night stands?"

"I assure you, Hermione, that I am totally clean. That lovely bird I picked up from the bar last night can attest to that," he grinned devilishly.

"Incorrigible…" Hermione scolded, rolling her eyes playfully.

"Don't pretend it doesn't turn you on," Sirius winked.

"Who wants something to eat?" Remus interrupted quickly, standing up in front of Hermione almost territorially.

"Awe, ease up, Moony ol' pal! You know I'm only joking! I would never have a threesome with you guys. For all I know, your idea of dirty talk is probably discussing the twelve uses of Dragon's blood and reciting the ingredients to a Draught of Living Death. I would never be able to maintain an erection!" Sirius joked.

Hermione simply laughed and Remus gave Sirius the finger, causing them all to laugh as they made their way to the kitchen for a snack.

"So what brings you here today, anyways, Sirius?" Hermione asked before taking a bite of her biscuit.

Sirius sighed dramatically. "It was a horrible series of events that led me to your doorstep, the first being when that lovely bird I talked about earlier left my flat this morning, leaving me all alone…actually, come to think of it, it's not a very long series of events after all. She left and I was bored, so I decided to visit you guys. That's it," Sirius shrugged playfully.

"Wow, you must have been pretty bored to come hang out with two boring old swots like us…Remus, doesn't this conversation remind you of that which took place in France in 1752 after that one nasty rebellion of the goblins?"

"Fuck, I knew it! Moony's probably at half mast already. I'm outta here!" Sirius declared as he pretended to take his leave.

"Shut up, you two! Honestly, is it really that hard to move the conversation away from the topic of sex?" Remus laughed.

"Yes," Sirius and Hermione said at the same time, though Sirius' was goofier and Hermione's was dirtier.

Sirius snorted into his tea. "Like I said, Moony: it's always the good girls…"

The three of them spent the rest of the day finishing decorating the house, though this time Sirius insisted on using magic to accomplish the job. And so while Remus and Sirius worked together to set up the dining room, Hermione ran upstairs to go and find her book on useful household charms. There were several pages in the decor section of the book showing different charms for pretty Christmas decorations, and Hermione was keen to try them out.

Passing the book on to Remus and Sirius, they each chose their favourite charms and started trying them in various rooms all along the main and second floors. The charm Hermione had chosen was one similar to the charm used in the Great Hall of Hogwarts to make the ceiling look like the sky outside, only this charm was to cause glittery, little snowflakes to fall from the ceiling and disappear about a foot above everyone's head so that there would be no mess. It took a few tries, but Hermione managed to perform the spell in the sitting room and in the hallway.

The spell Sirius had chosen was one that Professor Flitwick often used on the Christmas trees in the great hall, causing little, golden bubbles to flow out of the wand and decorate the garlands and wreath on the door. Hermione thought they were so pretty.

Hermione thought Remus' choice of spell looked truly fantastic with hers, as his was a spell to make never-melting icicles hang off of any surface. And so Remus set to work hanging icicles from various bookshelves and tables, which looked truly fantastic when paired with her ceiling snowstorms. In a couple short hours, the interior of the house looked like a gorgeous winter wonderland.

When all the decorating was done, the three of them all sat down and poured themselves a drink. Hermione had offered Sirius to stay for dinner, but he politely declined, saying he was going to try out a new bar in Northern Ireland and would order himself some food there while trying to pick up some birds.

"So when were you planning to tell everyone?" Sirius asked.

Hermione and Remus looked at each other.

"We didn't really plan when. We just want to keep it a secret until we're sure that Ron won't flip out," Hermione explained. "You don't think that Harry will be too horrified, do you?"

"Nah, I imagine he'll be fine. Utterly grossed out to know that his best friend is fucking his dad's best friend, but fine," Sirius chuckled. Hermione's cheeks warmed at how wrong it sounded, but she couldn't bring herself to feel any guilt whatsoever.

"And you, Sirius? Will you be bringing a date to the party?" Remus asked with an eyebrow raised.

"No, I don't think I will. I'm hoping I'll be able to get into Hestia Jones' knickers at some point in the night. She's been on my Fuckit Bucket List for some time. All those years we worked together for the Order and I still never managed to get her into bed with me. It's agonizing!" Sirius complained.

Hermione laughed. "Fuckit Bucket List?"

"Of course! Doesn't everyone have one, even just in secret? A list of people—or creatures, if that's your thing—that you want to fuck. I can tell you, I've got an extensively long one," Sirius winked at Hermione, causing Remus to growl at Sirius.

"Watch your tongue, Sirius," Remus bit out possessively, causing Hermione's centre to tingle in utter arousal. _Fuck, Remus is sexy when he's protective…_

"Come on Moony, we've already been over this! I'm not interested in fucking Hermione—no offence, sweetheart," Sirius smirked.

"Right back at you, Sirius," Hermione rolled her eyes before turning to reassure her lover, who she could tell was becoming extremely agitated with his best friend. "Remus, you have nothing to worry about. Sirius is like an uncle to me…a crazy, super sexual uncle who flirts with everything standing on at least one leg, but an uncle nonetheless. I cringe to even think about any sort of intimate relationship with him," Hermione chuckled, causing Remus to lighten up a little.

Ever since Hermione had become of-age, Sirius had developed a habit of flirting with her. But she knew better than to take him seriously. She knew that he flirted with nearly all of-age women, and even several men, because he was Sirius Black and that's just what he did. Heck, Hermione had even witnessed him flirting with Tonks on more than one occasion, even though they're practically cousins. Remus knew this about Sirius, too, but he was still angry at how inappropriate he was being towards his girlfriend. He should learn some respect, for Merlin's sake.

"Well, I'd best be off and leave you lovebirds to the angry and possessive fucking that Moony's been looking forward to all evening. You can thank me later, Hermione. Don't forget to use protection!" Sirius winked at the pair before standing up and disapparating.

Hermione tried her best to stifle the smile trying to break its way through her disapproving facade, but she was failing miserably. Had Sirius been flirting with her so relentlessly all evening on purpose, just to create some overwhelming sexual tension between them? Hermione's lips twitched at the thought.

"Fuck. I am so, so sorry, Hermione. I swear, sometimes I consider actually getting Sirius a muzzle and leash just to keep him from behaving so horribly. I wanted to kick him out, but since this is his house I tho—oh wow, okay," Remus muttered as Hermione slipped onto his lap and began pulling off his clothes.

"I love it when you get protective of me…" Hermione purred as she kissed her way down his jaw. Once she reached the bottom of his neck, though, she stopped and pulled back to look him in the eye. "Just please don't ever feel the need to be jealous. Protective is hot, but jealous is just hurtful. I would never, ever cheat on you. Got that?"

Remus gulped and nodded, before crashing his lips onto hers.

As it turned out, protective sex with Remus was totally mind-blowing. Hermione made a mental note to not only thank Sirius next time she saw him, but to buy him a bouquet of flowers and a thank you card. It was that good.

 **AN: Thanks for reading! And just because I'm bored and need a distraction from studying, leave me a comment telling me your HP otp(s). As you can see, I'm a big fan of Remus/Hermione, but I also love Draco/Hermione if it's written properly (Draco can't just wake up one day and be alright with Mudbloods). Love you all and have a nice day!**


	10. The Tenth Day of Christmas

**AN: Sorry guys, apparently something went wrong with the update where people weren't able to read it. Please let me know if the issue is fixed now!**

December 23rd—The Tenth Day of Christmas

It was the day before the Christmas Eve party and Hermione and Remus had set off for the streets of London, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley for some last-minute shopping. The weather had gone drastically downhill overnight, the temperatures dropping so much that their skin began to sting when outside in the wind for too long. Not ideal weather for shopping, but there wasn't much they could do to prevent it.

They had decided to get the muggle shopping out of the way first, so they started off in downtown London. Sirius had given Hermione and Remus a wad of Muggle cash (which he told Hermione was his reserve for when he was in the mood for a 'less magical' one-night stand), as well as a handful of galleons, and gave the pair the task of buying a large cartful of booze. With that in mind, Hermione made a mental list of all the different drinks they would need present at the party:

-Butterbeer for the general population

-Ogden's Old Firewhiskey (lots of it, mostly for the Weasleys)

-Rosmerta's Mulled Mead (for the older guests in attendance)

-Rum for the eggnog

-Brandy for Hagrid and Mundungus Fletcher

-Wine for Madam Maxime and Fleur Delacour, and perhaps a little for Hermione as well

-Christmas cocktail for the younger adults (Audrey especially, who was known to drink herself into a stupor on holidays)

-Alcohol-free punch for Angelina and the kids.

Oh yes, it was bound to be quite the party thanks to Sirius' generosity. She couldn't wait.

Hermione and Remus found their way to a muggle liquor store where they proceeded to spend a generous amount of Sirius' cash so that about half the list was completed. There were so many bottles that Hermione and Remus were forced to apparate home to drop it all off before they continued their shopping.

Next, they were on the hunt for some party foods. The couple wandered down the streets of London, huddled close together and eyes squinting from wind, searching for any sort of convenience store or the likes where they might find some crisps and food platters.

Hermione loved Muggle London at Christmas, all the decorations and lights giving it all a really cozy feel, despite the bitter weather. Hermione noticed many advertisements decorating lampposts and store windows for various Christmas shows and ballets, including The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, and some strange play that displayed a picture of about ten men leaping their way across a stage. Hermione had no clue what it was, but it looked rather silly to her.

They found all the Muggle foods and drinks that they needed, but by that time Hermione had started to shiver.

"What do you say we apparate to Hogsmeade so we can stop for a butterbeer?" Remus suggested, pulling her against him in an attempt to warm her up.

"Sounds great!"

Getting butterbeer was a great relief from the cold. Hermione couldn't help but gulp down nearly half her drink in one go, relishing in the feel of the warmth spreading all the way to her frozen fingers and toes.

Just as Hermione was about to pull her chair up beside Remus' so they could snuggle a little, a familiar-looking witch approached them.

"Remus! It's so good to see you! I hear you're hosting a party tomorrow. I'm planning on swinging around to say hi to the rest of the Order if that's alright with you!" she said in an overly-friendly tone. Perhaps it was because this was the first unmarried woman Hermione had seen talking to Remus since they started dating, but she was suddenly feeling a little protective. Based on the rigidity of Remus' back as he talked to the Witch, Hermione felt as though she had a good reason to be a little territorial. The Witch hadn't even acknowledged Hermione yet.

Seeming to realize this, Remus introduced them. "Hestia, this is Hermione Granger. Hermione, Hestia Jones. You were both a part of the Order, though I don't believe you would have had much occasion to meet."

"Oh, that's where I know you! You were that little girl who always tried to snoop on the Order meetings with all the Weasley children that one summer! Not only that but the infamous friend of Harry Potter, as well. I'm sorry for not recognizing you before now," she laughed, and Hermione couldn't help but feel like the Witch used the words 'little girl' on purpose, almost as if to remind Remus of how young she was. Oh yes, this Witch was without a doubt into Remus.

"Yes, that's me. I also happen to be the other host of the party tonight. Remus and I are both living in Grimmauld Place together, so we thought it would be nice to host the party together. Feel free to bring a plus one tomorrow if you do come," Hermione added with fake congeniality.

"Oh, well I'm afraid there's no plus one in my life if you know what I mean," she winked at Remus. Remus' posture grew even stiffer, and in that moment Hermione almost forgot why they were keeping their relationship a secret. She had the strong urge to loudly announce her claim on Remus Lupin to the near-empty bar.

"Well that's a shame," Remus said politely, and Hermione was glad to see Hestia's smile falter for a split second.

"Remus, I think it's time we got going. I don't want to be out for much longer and we still have to finish preparing the house for the party," Hermione half-fibbed, eager to get Remus away from this Witch.

"I think you're right, Hermione. We ought to get going. Nice seeing you, Hestia," Remus smiled, gathering his belongings and leaving Rosmerta a generous tip on the table.

"See you tomorrow! Oh, and nice meeting you, Hermione!"

Hermione plastered a smile on her face and nodded her head to the Witch in acknowledgment.

As soon as Hermione and Remus were out of the bar, Remus huffed out a little laugh.

"I hardly see anything funny about what just happened, Remus Lupin, so you'd better have a good reason to be laughing…"

"Oh, believe me, I do," Remus said, smiling affectionately down at Hermione, who was tugging on her gloves angrily. "Do the words 'protective is hot but jealous is hurtful' sound familiar to you at all, by any chance?" he chuckled.

Hermione's eyes widened in realization before narrowing again playfully. "Oh, shut up, you. You saw how she was basically slobbering all over you. It was plain as day, and at least you were able to tell Sirius off last night. I could do nothing but glare at the woman! I swear, as soon as the holiday season is over and I don't have to worry about any awkward meetings with Ronald Weasley, I will make it common knowledge to all witches and wizards that you are taken," Hermione growled, seizing Remus' hand possessively in hers.

Remus grimaced sheepishly. "I'm afraid the slobbering might be my fault. She and I…well we had a relationship of sorts after the war ended."

Hermione's gut clenched almost painfully. "Relationship of sorts?"

Remus nodded. "She was grieving, I was grieving. The depressing atmosphere made the transformations worse, and sex helped. She was a nice girl who knew of my condition and wasn't repulsed by me, so she helped me out—but it was never anything more than sex," he added hastily, seeing the hurt and insecure look on Hermione's face. "Well, at least for me it wasn't. I'm not interested in her at all now that I have you."

Hermione looked down and let a small smile creep its way onto her face. "Good. But mark my words, if she so much as looks at the mistletoe longingly, I'm going to hex her into the new year."

"Don't worry, love. I believe you," Remus laughed.

The next hour of errands went pretty smoothly, and Hermione and Remus had finished buying the snacks for the children from Honeydukes and the wizarding liquors from Hogsmeade. Only a few more stops in Diagon Alley before they could go home and snuggle up by the fire, perhaps with a little more jealous sex. Hermione's gut clenched pleasurably just thinking about it. With the full moon about a week and a half away, Remus' lycanthropy symptoms were beginning to show a little more, especially when they were having sex. She was delighted to discover that Remus was much more inclined towards rough sex in interesting places when the full moon approached. It was utterly fantastic.

At one point, Hermione's cell phone rang in her pocket. She didn't have much use for it, but she had bought one for both Harry and Ron after the war just so that they could always have a way of communicating, even when Floo and owls were unavailable. Remus looked startled by the noise but knew enough about muggle communication devices to figure out it was a phone that Hermione was fumbling with through her gloves.

"Remus, can we go inside somewhere? I need to pick this up. This might be an emergency," Hermione frowned worriedly.

Remus nodded quickly, ushering Hermione into the shop nearest them. Not even bothering to take in her surroundings, Hermione flipped her cell phone open and answered with a slightly panicked "hello?"

"Hermione! I need your help right now. It's an emergency!"

"Ginny? Is everything okay? You're using Harry's phone…is Harry alr—"

"Oh, don't worry, nobody's hurt. I just need a favour from you. It's urgent. You said you would be going to Diagon Alley today?"

"Yes, I'm in Toat Alley right now…you know, that street we wandered together with the others a week ago." Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion. Why was Ginny talking on Harry's phone? She was honestly surprised that her friend could figure out how to use it, to begin with.

"Oh, perfect! I'm currently looking after little Molly and Lucy right now while Percy and Audrey are out visiting Audrey's parents. Harry's also out doing some last minute shopping, so I can't leave the kids. I forgot that I needed to pick up some photos from a shop in Knockturn Alley before they close for the holidays. They're Christmas presents, so I really need them. Do you think you could pick them up for me? Pretty please?" Ginny begged.

"Sure thing. Do I need to pay for anything?"

"Nope. It's all prepaid. But you will need to pick out some frames for each picture for me, so maybe you can keep me on the phone and I'll tell you what sort of frame I'd like for each picture?" Ginny suggested.

"Sounds alright to me, only I'm going to have to call you back once I get to the shop. It's too cold to keep talking on the phone outside."

"Alright. The shop is called Phoenix Photography. It's near the end of the alley. You can't miss it. Call me when you get there."

"Okay, bye," Hermione replied, flipping the phone shut. She was absolutely not prepared for the sight that awaited her when she turned to Remus.

Hermione had been so distracted talking to Ginny that she hadn't realized what store she had walked into. Turns out, she had been standing in the entrance to the same lingerie store in which Hermione had been held hostage by her friends nearly a week ago. What were the odds?

And then Hermione's eyes fell on her boyfriend, who looked so far out of his element that he seemed ready to run and hide. Hermione was feeling exactly the same way at the moment. God, it was like they were made for each other!

"I swear I didn't bring us in here on purpose," Remus muttered, his face red with embarrassment.

Hermione chuckled embarrassedly. "I know you didn't. Let's get out of here before the traumatizing memories start coming back to me."

They hastily exited the shop, both not wanting to be there longer than was necessary. Once they felt they were far enough away from the shop to stop being so shy around each other, Remus cleared his throat.

"Do I even want to know what you meant by 'traumatizing memories'?"

Hermione laughed bitterly. "I was essentially kidnapped by a bunch of Weasley wives and had a bunch of products from that shop forced into my possession the other day, hence the pile of lingerie that you caught a glimpse of the day after."

"Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping you were putting on that fashion show in your bedroom in the hopes of seducing me, rather than just to try them on…" Remus fake pouted.

"Well, I'm not saying I expected you to knock on my door that early in the morning, but I certainly wasn't too disappointed with the events that followed," Hermione smirked.

"Believe me, I think knocking on your door that early was the best decision of my life," Remus laughed.

They both made their way to Knockturn Alley, and soon enough stood in the cramped entrance of the shop. Hermione approached the desk and asked the owner for Ginny's order. The owner seemed nice enough, but there was something just a little bit off about him. Hermione couldn't quite tell what.

While the owner was going to fetch some samples of frames, Hermione pulled her cell phone out of her pocket again. She motioned for Remus to open the package of photos for her while she dialed Harry's phone number. Turning away and pacing across the small room, she waited for Ginny to pick up. Suddenly, she heard Remus inhale sharply, then make a strangled sound of horror.

Hermione turned around in time to see Remus dropping a small pile of photos onto the counter and cover his face with his hands. Having a feeling that she knew why Remus had been so shocked, Hermione picked up the stack of pictures. Her jaw dropped. It was a boudoir photo shoot, most of them featuring Ginny naked as the day she was born in various sexual positions. The one on top of the stack was a side-shot of Ginny arching off a bed in pleasure, her chest fully exposed and some silk sheets draped over her hips to hide her more private parts. Hermione could see why Remus was so horrified. Even she, who had on more than one occasion accidentally walked in on Ginny and Harry going at it in places they shouldn't be, was embarrassed to see such a thing.

It was then that Ginny decided to pick up the phone. "Hey, Hermione! You got the photos yet?"

"Yes. _Remus_ and I opened the package already. _Remus_ and I saw the contents of your photos. What the hell, Ginny? You couldn't have warned me?!" Hermione screeched. Remus still hadn't removed his hands from his eyes, still hadn't made a noise other than embarrassed whimpers.

"Wait, Remus is there with you? I thought you were alone!" Ginny said, doing a bad job at stifling her laughter.

"Ginny Potter, I am going to kill you when I see you tomorrow!" Hermione screeched shrilly into the phone just as the shop owner came back into the room with the frame samples.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Let's please move on to the pictures. I need them framed for Harry's office at home. Can you pretty please with a pepper imp on top help me out?"

Hermione very nearly growled. "You owe me big-time for this, Ginny," she said before turning to her boyfriend. "Remus, maybe you should go next door and check out the used bookstore? I'll join you once I'm done."

He looked all too eager to get out, which made Hermione smile. Oh yes, it would be hard for this wizard to ever break her heart. She got a really good one.

"Alright, Hermione. Please describe the first picture for me," Ginny began.

Hermione's eyes widened in horror. "No way, Jose. That was never a part of the deal! I will not be describing these pictures to you. Just tell me what sort of frames you want and I'll find them for you."

"But Hermione, I can hardly know what sort of frames would look good with the pictures if you don't describe the pictures to me. I'm honestly going to be largely relying on your ability to choose nice frames for me, as it'll be kind of hard for me to imagine them without actually having seen them."

Hermione huffed exasperatedly. She was going to have nightmares for weeks. She approached the desk and picked up the first image.

"Alright. You're shirtless and arching up off a bed. What sort of frame do you want?"

"Hmmm…I was thinking perhaps a black one to make it pop a little more. That one was one of my favourites."

And so it went on like this until Hermione had picked out a frame for every photo. This had probably been the worst experience of her life, and she considered Ginny lucky that her Christmas gift to Hermione had resulted in some of the best sex of her life. Some of the pictures had been truly awful, for example, the one with Ginny bending over a chair, the camera focusing on her bare arse and quim. Another had been a picture of Ginny tied up to the headboard of a bed with a vibrator stuck between her legs. Hermione hated that the pictures were moving, but she thanked Merlin that they were silent. Otherwise, there would be a lot of moaning noises filling the small shop. It would have been awful.

Just as the owner was about to start wrapping the gifts, a thought struck Hermione. "Uh…Ginny? Where are you going to put all these photos when you have visitors? And what will happen when you have children?"

There was a very long silence before a very embarrassed-sounding Ginny replied. "Funny you should ask that because I haven't really thought about any of that yet…" there was another pause where Hermione could feel the anger bubbling up inside of her, "maybe getting frames isn't such a good idea. Maybe I should be buying an album instead?"

"GINNY WEASLEY I SWEAR TO GOD WHEN I SEE YOU TOMORROW, YOU CAN KISS GOODBYE YOUR [insert many swear and curse words here] AND BLOODY VOYEURISTIC [and a few more here as well]…"

About five minutes later, Hermione was practically dragging Remus out of the bookstore and back home so she could let off the rest of her anger in a way that would be pleasing to the both of them.


	11. The Eleventh Day of Christmas

**AN: I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated. This chapter was a slow one, but I made it extra long to make it up to you. Second last chapter, so tell me what you think! Enjoy!**

December 24th—The Eleventh Day of Christmas

"Someone turn the music up!"

"And for zhe love of Merlin, not zhat Celestina Warbeck again!"

It was nearly nine o'clock on Christmas Eve, and the party was in full swing by this point. The children were still awake, now running a circuit through the house on their massive sugar highs; the Weasley twins were off Merlin knows where, probably setting up some booby-trapped mistletoe or something; Mrs. Weasley had inevitably ended up behind an oven, baking some cookies for the children before they went to bed upstairs; Bill and Charlie were drunkenly boasting to each other about all the dangers they had faced during their travels; the Hogwarts professors were grouped together, probably wondering where they went wrong with all their former students in the room.

As for Remus and Hermione, they were currently doing their best to eye fuck each other from across the room. They had started a sort of competition, really, to see who could be the most obvious in their flirting without anyone seeing. It was a dangerous game, but it was just too damn tempting to resist. Hermione was currently filling up her cup with some Christmas cocktail, pretending to not be affected by the look of pure sex that Remus was sending her over Harry's shoulder. Harry couldn't have been more oblivious.

Hermione squirmed in her spot, feeling that beautiful torture of horny tingles in her lady parts. It also probably wasn't helping that she was wearing the crotchless panties that Angelina had given her under a dress that was practically skin-tight and ended at about mid-thigh. It sufficiently covered all her parts so as to not be inappropriate, but was still quite sexy. Finding that dress in her closet, Remus had insisted that Hermione should wear it tonight as an early Christmas present to him. Hermione wore it on the condition that they escape from the party at some point in the evening to spend some time together. She hadn't specified whether or not the time should be used for anything sexual, but based on the way this evening was playing out, Hermione had a feeling they wouldn't be able to resist.

She was unfortunately broken out of her reverie by the sound of the front door opening again, which could only mean one thing: Ronald Weasley and his date had finally arrived. They were the only ones invited who weren't yet present, despite the fact that the party had started two hours ago. Hermione wasn't surprised in the least. _Arse_.

"Hey everyone! Merry Christmas!" he called from the entrance way as he was greeted by all his friends and family. Hermione was perfectly fine staying in the living room, rather than going out to greet him like many of the others. She would only speak to him if she had to.

She tried to avoid speaking to Ron by speaking with some of their former teachers; she knew that Ron's will to stay away from anything or anyone school-related would likely overpower his will to gloat about his girlfriend to Hermione.

And so she struck up a conversation with Professor McGonagall about the latest articles and breakthroughs in _Transfiguration Today_. Remus seemed to understand her frame of mind and gave her a small reassuring nod from across the room.

Sure enough, Ron walked in a few minutes later with—well, she honest to God looked like a whore hanging off of his arm like she was. Hermione didn't like labeling girls as sluts and whores, but this girl was practically the embodiment of the word. She looked as though she just walked out of a porn video. Her dress—if it could even be called that?—looked as though she just took a tube-top a size too big and pulled it down to cover her arse, causing the neckline to start just above her nipples. Her dark hair looked as though someone had been grabbing fistfuls of it in the throes of passion, and her red lipstick had smudged slightly under her lip, giving Hermione a good idea of why she and Ron had been late. Hermione shivered in disgust.

All of a sudden, Hermione found herself incapable of focusing on anything her former Head of House was saying. Ron and his girlfriend had approached Remus. Hermione found herself straining to hear their conversation, though there was no need to as Ron had always been incorrigibly loud.

"Professor Lupin! How've you been? It feels like ages since I've last seen you."

"It's nice to see you as well, Ronald. I've been quite well, thank you. How have you been?" he asked, courteous as ever, though Hermione could tell that he wasn't very interested in speaking with Ron at all, and was especially uncomfortable with the state of Ron's girlfriend.

"I'm great! Livin' the dream," he smirked cockily.

An awkward pause. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. I'm Remus Lupin, one of Ronald's former Hogwarts professors." Ron had never been one for manners, so again it was no surprise that he had made no move to introduce his guest like a gentleman.

"Oh wow, a professor! I'm Nikki," she gushed flirtatiously, as though the fact that he was a professor hadn't been revealed in Ron's greeting. "Ronnie, you didn't tell me how good-looking your professors are! First Gilderoy Lockhart and now this man? Hey, maybe we can do some teacher-student role play when we get home! All these men are giving the name Professor a really sexy vibe…"

Hermione was practically vibrating with suppressed rage. What the hell was Ron thinking, bringing this brainless sex-addict to a family-friendly party? Or perhaps he had held her up on purpose so that the children would be going to bed at about the same time as they arrived? It didn't matter because Hermione was still furious with him. How dare he let his girlfriend act so inappropriately in public? It was positively disgraceful!

"Come on, Nikki. I want to introduce you to everyone. Hey, 'Mione! Long time no see!" Ron waved from across the living room, and Hermione fought not to groan as he dragged his arm candy with him to where Hermione was standing.

McGonagall, who had stopped mid-conversation with Hermione to listen to the conversation between the happy couple and Remus, looked as though she was struggling not to smirk. She knew how torturous this was going to be, and she was pulling out her metaphorical popcorn for the show.

"Hello, Ron. This must be your girlfriend. I'm Hermione," she nodded politely, not wanting to extend her hand to shake the other girl's. Who knows what her paws have touched? Hermione had a few ideas and all of them made her feel a little sick to her stomach.

"Oh, _you're_ Hermione," she said as though she had been told many stories. Ron's ears pinked slightly, as they often did when he was a little embarrassed or angry. Yep, he had definitely bitched to his girlfriend about her. "I'm Nikki. Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting _the Hermione Granger_! You're like, you know, a war hero, right? Like my Ronnie?"

Hermione fought not to roll her eyes. So that's how Ron had wooed her. He had played the War Hero card. What a pathetic arse. "The term 'war hero' isn't that special around here. You'll find that most people in this house right now are 'war heroes'. This is, after all, a party for the former Order of the Phoenix members."

"What's the Order of the Phoenix?"

Hermione very nearly smacked herself in the forehead. _What a dummy_.

"So how's life been, 'Mione? Still no men? I know I've been getting sex galore with Nikki here," Ron interjected, obviously wanting to change the subject to something that would make him feel superior again.

"Life's been good, and my love life is no longer any of your business if you hadn't noticed," Hermione spat. She could feel her temper rising like a thermometer placed in boiling water. "There _is_ such a thing as _privacy_ , you know, and I quite enjoy keeping mine. You and Nikki should give it a try sometime. Who knows, it might do you both some good," Hermione snapped savagely. She couldn't help it at this point. If nobody took Ron down a few pegs, this party would turn to absolute shit.

"Whoah, calm down, 'Mione! It was just a question. Just because you don't have a boyfriend, doesn't mean you have to get all defensive," he smirked, putting his hands up to show he meant no offense, which was a total lie.

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself down before she exploded on him. It wouldn't do to make a scene. Instead, she plastered a challenging smirk on her face. "Who said I didn't have a boyfriend?" she asked mysteriously, before turning on her heel and sauntering out of the room. At this point, she wasn't sure she would last the night without making some very loud declaration of her love for Remus Lupin if only to put Ron back in his place.

Hermione entered the kitchen to see how Mrs. Weasley was doing. She was pulling a tray out of the oven while a spoon was magically scooping balls of batter onto another tray. The smell of chocolate chip cookies was thick in the air, and Hermione's head tingled with the nostalgia of her own childhood Christmas holidays.

"It smells absolutely delicious in here, Mrs. Weasley! Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh no, Hermione, dear. You go ahead and enjoy your party! I'm perfectly alright on my own," Mrs. Weasley smiled warmly.

"I think I'd better enjoy the party from a distance. I just met Ron's girlfriend, Nikki," Hermione huffed, giving Mrs. Weasley a weak smile.

The woman's head snapped up at the name, and Hermione noticed once again the look of intense dislike cross her face. "Oh, well I can understand that. Here, you can help me by setting the table with glasses and small plates for the children. Perhaps you could also pour some milk out for them?"

Hermione smiled and set to work, placing three small plates and glasses out for the three little girls who were currently playing a loud game of Ring Around the Rosy in the drawing room.

"So I take it you don't like Nikki very much as well? What has she done so far that has set you off, if you don't mind me asking?" Mrs. Weasley asked curiously, almost as if she were searching for more reasons to despise the girl. Hermione didn't mind at all, and she honestly felt bad for the woman, knowing how her son was so open about his relationship with the trollop.

"She made some crude comments about how good-looking m—Remus is and how she wouldn't be opposed to playing student-teacher with Ron after the party ends," Hermione blushed, luckily catching herself before she called Remus 'my boyfriend'.

Molly fumed. "What a—oh, I'm so disappointed in Ron. He could do so much better than that…that bimbo!"

"Yeah, I can't help but feel a little offended that he thinks her an upgrade from me…" Hermione chuckled lightly.

It was like Mrs. Weasley finally realized to whom she was ranting. She blushed furiously and took Hermione into an apologetic hug. "I'm so sorry Hermione. Trust me when I say that she is no upgrade. I'm only sorry that it didn't work out between you because I'd take you any day as a daughter-in-law over _Nikki_."

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley. I think I'd better get back to the party now before someone realizes the hostess is missing."

"Yes, of course, dear. You do that."

Hermione wandered back down the hall, wondering if she'd ever manage to catch Remus alone this evening, or if his promise to have a private moment with her at some point would go unfulfilled. Hermione hoped it wouldn't, as she had worn Angelina's lingerie as a special surprise for him if things did turn sexual.

All of a sudden, an arm swung around Hermione's waist and a hand clapped over her mouth to silence her squeak of surprise. She was tugged roughly to her left and into a small washroom. The door swung shut behind her, and all of a sudden Hermione was being pushed up against it.

There was no source of light in this bathroom with the door closed and all the candles extinguished, so Hermione had no clue who her attacker was. She tried to swing her fist around to hit her attacker, but the person—definitely a man—was quicker and pinned her wrists at her sides. He used his own body to push her into the door and ensure that she couldn't kick or knee him. She could feel his breath tickling her ear.

Just as she was about to scream bloody murderer, the man whispered in her ear in a familiar voice. "I've finally got you all alone. I've been looking forward to this all evening, what with all the teasing you've done. You've been a naughty girl, Miss Granger."

Hermione sighed in relief. It was just Remus. As her heart rate began to slow a little, Hermione decided she would play along. "I don't know what you're talking about. I have been teasing no one."

He chuckled darkly, his breath tickling her neck and causing her to squirm against his body. "Oh, yes you have, Hermione, and you know it. You've been teasing me ever since you slipped on that sexy little dress of yours, hoping to catch my attention. Well, guess what, my attention has been caught. I believe it is now your turn to be teased…"

Remus pulled Hermione's hands up above her head so that he could hold them with one hand, then dipped his newly-freed hand to the bottom of her thigh. Hermione shivered as he traced up the inside of her left thigh, pulling the hem of her slinky dress up with him as he neared her center.

With the last ounce of logic remaining in Hermione's increasingly fuzzy brain, she asked Remus if he had put a muffling charm up around them. She really wasn't in the mood to traumatize three little girls and greatly disturb the rest of the guests.

Hermione could hear Remus' smirk in his voice as he replied with an ambiguous "you'd better hope I did…"

Once Remus reached Hermione's panties, he let out a small gasp of shock. Hermione could feel herself blush, though more out of excitement and arousal than embarrassment.

"Hermione?" he began, using his teacher voice on her again, "are you wearing crotchless knickers?"

Hermione moaned in confirmation. The combination of his fingers lightly stroking her pussy and the sound of his teacher's voice was making her so insanely wet. She bucked her hips and thrust her chest towards Remus in the hopes of gaining some more friction for her lady parts.

Remus growled—actually growled—at her and quickly thrust two digits up her pussy. He pumped a few times before withdrawing to circle her clit for several seconds. He then repeated his actions over and over until Hermione was a panting, whimpering mess. She was constantly on the edge but was never able to achieve orgasm. He was torturing her on purpose, and it was absolutely delicious. She couldn't remember ever feeling hornier.

All of a sudden, Remus' hand disappeared. Hermione heard a wet sucking noise, then felt the hem of her dress being tugged back down into place. She realized with a shiver of arousal that the sucking noise had been Remus sucking her juices from his fingers.

All of a sudden, Hermione realized what was happening. He was leaving. "Hey wait, you can't do that!" she protested.

"I assure you, Hermione, that I can do what I want. And what I want right now is to return to the party we are supposed to be hosting. Now, be a good girl and move away from the door."

Hermione had never heard Remus speak to her like that, and it definitely wasn't helping with the horrible throb of pleasure in her pussy. He was taking charge of her, taking what was his without asking permission and it was really turning her on, despite how much it annoyed her.

When Hermione made no attempt to get out of his way, Remus grabbed her by the arms and moved her himself. He then opened the door and—without bothering to make sure the coast was clear—left the room looking completely unaffected by what had just transpired between them.

She was _definitely_ going to get him back for that later.

She exited the bathroom and turned to go in the opposite direction of Remus, causing her to nearly run over Professor McGonagall who was standing right in the middle of the hall looking a horrible combination of unimpressed and amused.

"Professor! Sorry, I didn't see you there," Hermione gasped, feeling her cheeks burning hotter than flames. Busted.

McGonagall simply raised her eyebrows and smirked almost mockingly as if to say 'really? Lupin? Now?" and Hermione was positively mortified. Then McGonagall simply walked away with a big smirk as if nothing had ever happened. Well, at least she didn't disapprove.

Hermione took a moment to make sure her blush was under control before entering the library, where she found Harry and Ginny sitting together on a love seat. She pulled up a chair next to the couch so she could join them.

"Hey 'Mione, what's up? You look a little flushed," Harry said in concern.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just getting a little hot from being around so many people. I thought I'd chill out in here as it's a little less crowded," Hermione lied.

"So how are you liking your Christmas present from all of us? Are you enjoying using them as much as we expect you are?" Ginny asked vaguely. Hermione shot her a look but answered anyway.

"I just used the one from Angelina not five minutes ago," Hermione smirked evilly. Ginny burst out laughing and high-fived Hermione.

"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Harry asked, his brow furrowed in utter confusion.

"No," Ginny and Hermione said together.

"Alright, I'll take that as my cue to leave," Harry said, jumping to his feet awkwardly.

But at that exact moment, there was a large shriek that came from the living room. The three of them looked to each other before grabbing their wands as an old war habit and rushed to the room. Inside, they found Ron and Nikki on one side of the room and everyone else on the other, staring at the two of them with horrified expressions. Hermione noticed that Nikki seemed to be adjusting her pseudo-dress as if it had just come off.

" _RONALD WEASLEY_ , I CANNOT _BELIEVE_ YOU RIGHT NOW! YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT INAPPROPRIATE EVERY TIME WE SEE YOU AND THIS IS THE FINAL STRAW! EITHER SHOW SOME RESPECT OR GET OUT!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed, her face redder than her hair.

Ron's ears were turning red as well, which was always a clear sign of his anger. "WE'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG! SO WHAT IF WE ENJOY PDA? IT'S NOT AS IF YOU AND DAD HAVE NEVER KISSED IN PUBLIC! EVERYONE DOES IT!"

"With all due respect, Ron, kissing is quite a bit different than having your girlfriend straddle your lap with her dress pulled up to her waist right in front of everyone else," Remus pointed out, speaking calmly to try and diffuse the tension. How he always managed to remain level-headed, Hermione would never know, but she definitely envied him it. Her heart swelled with admiration for him.

Ron's head snapped viciously towards Remus and spat "just because you're not getting any, Lupin, doesn't mean you have to spoil the fun for everyone else!"

Hermione saw red. That was the last straw. She furiously strode across the room and swiftly slapped him across the face. Last time she had done that to anyone, it had been to Malfoy in their third year. She was feeling similarly enraged right now.

"I'M SO DONE WITH ALL OF THIS! You know, I tried my best to prevent all the drama that I knew you'd cause at Christmas by keeping it a secret, but it's too late because you, Ronald Weasley, are unable to resist stirring the pot. No point in keeping it a secret now! I AM DATING REMUS LUPIN. That's right, you didn't mishear! I have been all holiday. But you see, _I_ was decent enough to keep my personal life private and not rub the fact that I'm having mind-blowing sex in everyone's faces, unlike you, you arse! Now please, do us all a favour by taking your trollop and leaving RIGHT NOW before I make you!" Hermione screeched.

There was a long silence during which everyone goggled at Hermione. Everyone was kind of just speechless. Unfortunately, Ron was the first to recover.

"You're dating Professor Lupin? But he's like…twice your age!"

Hermione groaned—actually groaned—in frustration and annoyance. "Ron, just get out. We're done here. Just leave."

"You can't kick me out. This isn't your house," Ron pointed out childishly.

"Nah, but it's mine, and I agree with her," Sirius frowned. "I think you need to leave, mate. There's a line when it comes to PDA and straddling make out sessions when there are kids just in the next room is definitely crossing it."

Ron gaped for a minute, opening and closing his mouth as if searching for some way to retort. When he couldn't come up with one, he simply grabbed Nikki's hand and marched through the door. They heard the front door slam shut a few minutes later.

"Yikes, that was…" George began.

"Awfully frightening," Fred finished.

"Who knew our brother had a sex life?" George added.

And just like that, the intense atmosphere dispersed a little. Thank God for the Weasley twins.

After that incident, the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly. Conversation and music resumed, and everyone did their best to put Ron out of their minds. Now that their relationship was out in the open, Hermione and Remus were practically glued to each other's side for the rest of the evening. They had received a plethora of reactions to their relationship, as they had expected. Some, like Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and some of the older members in the Order seemed a little disturbed by the age difference, some like McGonagall and Kingsley seemed silently amused, some like the younger Weasley wives and Hagrid were positively ecstatic for the pair, and then Mad-Eye Moody didn't seem to give a crap at all.

Hermione had mostly been worried about Harry's reaction, though. At first, he seemed really embarrassed and weirded out by the fact that Hermione was dating one of his dad's best friends. But after a little bit of explaining from Hermione about how truly happy she was, Harry broke out in a tentative smile and said "well, better him than Sirius" and they all burst out into laughter, even Sirius.

Once the clock had struck midnight, all the young parents in the room began to take their leave so they could finish setting out their gifts from Father Christmas for their children. Next, Angelina and George left, George saying that he didn't want to push Angelina too hard, what with the pregnancy and everything, though Angelina whispered to Hermione that George was just using her pregnancy as an excuse so that they could go home and have sex. Then the older people in attendance started getting tired and left. Soon enough, it was just Sirius, Remus and Hermione left.

"Well that was fun, but I'd better go now. I can tell Moony's been wanting to tear off that sexy dress of yours since that hilarious outburst of yours earlier. Good on you for that, by the way. Ron deserved it. I'll see you both on New Year's Eve! Oh, I did tell you I'd be coming over for that, didn't I?" Sirius asked, his face screwed up in his attempt to remember.

"No you didn't, but you're welcome to come over. I doubt we'll have any big plans," Hermione laughed.

Sirius set off, and Hermione and Remus were left all alone. "That was bloody brilliant, that outburst of yours, you know," he smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I thought you'd like it. I considered running over and making out with you to prove my point, but that may have been a little counter-productive for the point we were trying to make. Slightly hypocritical even…"

"I certainly wouldn't have minded," Remus smiled before dipping his head and kissing Hermione sweetly.

They shared a moment before Hermione ruined it. "Okay, I'm still horny as hell from earlier, so what do you say you now finish what you started?"

Remus smirked. "With pleasure."


	12. The Twelfth Day of Christmas

**AN: And here it is! Thank you so much for reading my story and sticking with me until the end. It has been so much fun to write, I am so glad that so many people enjoyed it. I honestly wasn't expecting more than 1,000 reads for this so I was truly blown away by the amount of attention this story got. To all those who favourited and commented on this story, I just want to say thank you so much. Every comment and heart made my day. So without further ado, I give you the twelfth and final day of Christmas. Enjoy!**

December 25th—The Twelfth Day of Christmas

Hermione woke up in a most blissful state. She was wrapped up in Remus' long arms with her head resting on his chest. Her body still had that sated feeling of post-coitus and she could still feel her pores buzzing from her last orgasm about five hours ago. Though she didn't get much sleep, she was too excited for today to feel at all tired. It was Christmas.

The thought made her so excited, she found herself incapable of not fidgeting excitedly within the circle of Remus' arms, which, as a result, woke him up as well. He released Hermione from the confines of his arms so he could rub the sleep out of his eyes. Hermione smiled lazily up at him, admiring how the early-morning rays of sun peeked through the window and fell upon his sharp cheekbones and pale eyelashes.

"Mmfff…'morning, love," he mumbled as his eyes cracked open into tired-looking slits. The full moon was about a week away so things would be getting a little rougher this week. Hermione didn't mind, though. She was already too invested in the relationship to be scared off.

Pushing the troubling thoughts of his lycanthropy away, Hermione pushed a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. "You mean Happy Christmas," she smiled back.

"Mmmmm…so it is," Remus replied, trailing his fingers up and down her spine lightly enough to cause goosebumps to appear all over her skin.

Hermione was putty in his hands for all of five seconds before she remembered everything she needed to do this morning. Oh, it was going to be a great day!

She rose from the bed and began walking out of Remus' bedroom, naked as the day she was born. Remus had been so mesmerized by the way her arse moved as she walked that he only realized what was happening by the time she left the room.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?" Remus shouted, springing off the bed and running into the hall to catch up with her.

"Off to shower while you make breakfast, silly. I'm fairly certain that I have some of your jizz still clumped up in my hair from that last round. You know, I never thought I'd like being cream-pied, but that was not nearly as horrid as I thought it would be," Hermione explained with a chuckle, not bothering to turn around or stop walking as she headed towards the bathroom. She was being a tease and she knew it.

Remus couldn't decide whether he wanted to run over to her and take her against the wall for teasing him so mercilessly, or to do as she said and attempt to commit every detail of last night to memory. What a wonderful evening it had been…

Before he could even make a decision, though, Hermione had closed the bathroom door behind her and he heard the lock click in place. Sure, he was a wizard and could unlock the door if he wanted to, but the fact that she had used the lock made him think that perhaps she wanted a little time by herself before they would inevitably go back to fornicating and sleeping their way through the day.

Remus skipped his way downstairs, feeling quite energetic and lighthearted, despite the ever-approaching full moon. He was feeling so satisfied and happy from all the sex with Hermione that he couldn't feel any symptoms whatsoever. It was wonderful, and he could only pray that it would last a while longer.

Once in the kitchen, Remus decided that a nice, protein-filled breakfast would be most beneficial today. Not only would the protein be good for him in the week before his transformation, but it would also be good to help give him and Hermione some more energy to continue their physical activities. Some eggs and breakfast sausage would do the trick. So, turning on the radio to some sort of Christmas dozen drummer concerto, he set to work.

Meanwhile, Hermione was already busy washing her hair with some cucumber-scented soap, relishing in the feel of the hot jet of the shower head against her slightly sore muscles. She had already made a to-do list for her time in the bathroom, including shaving all areas of her body that were in need of shaving, scrubbing every inch of herself with some fragrant body soaps, coating her hair in conditioner until it behaved, and slathering moisturizer all over once she was done so that she would be soft and sweet-smelling. She wanted to be nice and prettied up for Remus today. She was his gift, after all.

Once she had finished with the shower, she was faced with a dilemma: should she put on the lingerie right now and give him his present right away, or should she put on some regular clothes and save the surprise for later?

Her stomach growled and answered her question for her. Breakfast first. She decided to put on a bathrobe overtop of the lingerie so that when the time came, she would simply have to untie the robe and lay herself out for him. She felt herself blush and get a little wet just thinking about it. Oh, how she couldn't wait for him to unwrap her.

It took the brightest Witch of her age a whole five minutes to untangle the many ribbons of the knickers and to figure out how to put them on properly, but the rest was pretty easy after that. The bralette wasn't much of a challenge, as the breast-piece and the armholes were pretty obvious. She loved the way the front of the bra was all lace and the straps and back were all made of the same red ribbons as the knickers.

Hermione took a moment to admire herself in the mirror before she had to cover herself with her robe. The bright red brought out the blush in her cheeks and made her look quite pretty. It had always been her colour. The ribbons that wrapped around her hips accentuated her curviness, which she was normally quite insecure about, but in this instance found herself admiring them. She honestly looked like some sort of Christmas lingerie advertisement, and she felt quite proud of herself for it. Despite her scariness, Fleur really was a genius.

Slipping on her white cotton bathrobe, Hermione decided to use her magic to shorten the hem of it just to make her that much more enticing and that much less like Molly Weasley on a weekend. She skipped her way downstairs, admiring the sound of Remus whistling Beethoven's ninth from the kitchen, coupled with the sizzling of what her nose told her was breakfast sausage.

When she walked into the kitchen, Remus, as per usual, struggled not to drool at the sight of her. She looked and smelled so soft and feminine, and the wolf within him made its presence known as it admired her along with him. Her bathrobe ended just above her arse, was cinched at the waist by the ribbon tying it together, and the low neckline gave him a perfect view of her glorious cleavage. He was suddenly less hungry for food and more hungry for her.

"I hope you made lots. For some reason, I'm positively ravenous this morning," Hermione smirked, causing Remus to feel quite proud of himself. Something about the morning after always made him feel quite manly, especially when Hermione was walking a little funny. She seemed to be walking fine this morning, which was something he would have to correct later on.

"Funny, I seem to be having the same problem, though it isn't the eggs that I'm craving right now," he smirked. He was delighted to see Hermione blush as she chuckled.

"Keep your pants on until after breakfast at least, would you? I'm much too hungry to be tempted into another round right now. Tea or coffee?" Hermione teased.

"I think coffee would be appropriate this morning, especially with what I have planned for later," Remus said, waggling his eyebrows.

"You, Sir, are skating a very fine line with all those sexual comments after I just told you how hungry I am," she scolded as she pulled out the manual coffee maker.

Remus groaned. "Call me Sir again and I'll be miles away from that fine line."

Hermione laughed and slapped his arm playfully. She realized that she could easily get used to mornings like this with Remus. Things were kind of perfect right now. She planned to cherish this sweet monotony for as long as it lasted.

After they finished breakfast, the couple sat on the love seat in the sitting room with the Christmas tree in it.

"So I know we never really discussed gifts or anything, but I did manage to buy you a little something to mark our first Christmas together," Remus said, pulling a small box out of his pyjama pocket and handing it to her.

"Is there even any point in telling you that you didn't have to?" Hermione smiled up at him.

"Absolutely none. I am a Gryffindor through and through, which means chivalry and stubbornness are in my DNA. Now open it up before I lose my control and rip that oh-so enticing bathrobe off of you," Remus growled.

Hermione smirked inwardly when she thought about what his reaction would be to what she was wearing under her bathrobe. Despite how funny that would be, she obeyed him and undid the pretty little ribbon wrapped around the box. Inside she found a gorgeous silver bracelet with a tiny snowflake charm dangling off the end.

"I saw it when I was walking to the bookstore after you banished me from that boudoir photography place and was instantly reminded of that night in the snowstorm when we had our first kiss," Remus blushed. He was so awkward at gift-giving and it was positively adorable.

"Thank you, Remus. I really love it," Hermione said, showing all the sincerity of her affections for him in her smile. She really loved her present and wasn't sure she could ever be convinced to part with it. It was so beautiful and exactly her style.

Hermione leaned forward to kiss him, and soon enough kissing turned to full-on making out. When she felt Remus' hands fumbling with the knot of her bathrobe, she let out a squeak and pulled away.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, his eyes wide with worry that he had done something wrong.

"Everything's perfect, I just realized that I need to give you your present now," Hermione replied, and she was certain her face was turning red. She was so nervous; she had never done anything this daring or bold before and was praying that it would go well.

"Do we have to right now? I was rather hoping for a nice long shag as a thank you for the gift," Remus said, waggling his eyebrows temptingly. Hermione giggled and slapped him lightly on the arm. Merlin, her hands were already shaking and sweating. She could feel her heart begin to race slightly.

In an attempt to give herself some time to collect herself and start it off how she had envisioned it, she took Remus' hands and placed them over her eyes. "No peeking, okay?"

"Of course not," Remus smirked mischievously.

"I mean it. Don't open your eyes until I tell you to," she scolded, getting up off the couch.

She quickly checked her reflection in the glass of the living room door to make sure her hair was alright before slipping off her robe and hanging it off the back of a nearby chair. She reached her hand into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a long, thick red ribbon that she had found earlier. She then wrapped it around her bare midriff and tied it in a bow. The finishing touch.

Then, laying on her side under the Christmas tree in what she hoped was a sexy pose. "Open up," she said in a barely-there voice. She was so nervous for this and was suddenly regretting her decision to do this the way she did. Wouldn't it have been better for her to simply walk out of the bathroom like this and into the bedroom where Remus would have been waiting for her? Or perhaps wearing it to bed one night and waiting for him to notice when he brushed up against her in the night? Why was she pretending to be some sort of sexy model at some cheesy photoshoot? This couldn't possibly be attractive…

But she was too late. Remus had opened his eyes and was now staring down at her with a whole new type of intensity. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, as if trying to string together a few words but was failing miserably. Hermione pushed herself up into a sitting position and had started to push herself up so that she could run away in embarrassment when Remus finally managed a single word: "No."

Hermione froze. She was certain the blush she was sporting had run all down her neck and was probably even touching the tops of her breasts at this point. "W—what?"

"Stay where you are," he said simply, his expression still intense and unreadable.

Hermione sat back on the floor and stared up at him with unveiled insecurity and bashfulness. Remus stood up from the couch and slowly made his way over to where she was sitting. He then knelt on both knees in front of her and, so slowly it seemed almost like slow-motion, he brought his lips to hers. He tasted of orange juice and warmth, and his kisses were as soft as silk.

Hermione returned his delicate kisses after a moment of shock, and let her fingers run through his hair. After a moment of soft kisses, Remus grabbed Hermione's wrists in one hand and pushed her down with his other so that she was lying flat on her back. He then moved her wrists so that he was holding them above her head and continued kissing her from above.

Hermione was in heaven. His kisses were so delicate and reverent that one might think she was made of glass. Soon he began trailing his loving kisses down her neck and chest, between her breasts until he reached the ribbon she had tied around herself.

"Is this for me?" he asked, giving the end of the ribbon a gentle tug without undoing it.

"All for you," Hermione half-moaned, goosebumps breaking out over her skin as she felt his breath on her abdomen.

"I've always said that ribbons are the best part of unwrapping the gift—that is, of course, second to actually finding out what the gift is. Will I be allowed to play with my gift once I open it?" Remus asked, a sexy smirk tugging at his mouth.

"Whatever you want…I'm yours," Hermione breathed back.

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear," Remus muttered, before grabbing Hermione around her waist and lifting her up into his arms, smiling when her legs wrapped around him naturally.

"What are you doing?" Hermione shrieked as Remus lifted himself to his feet and began carrying her swiftly down the halls and up the stairs.

"Taking you to my bedroom so I can play with my present properly," Remus said while letting one of his hands cup and squeeze her arse. Hermione giggled, feeling all of her worries and tension from earlier disappearing and being replaced by lust.

Remus strode briskly into his room and laid Hermione down quite gently before quickly taking her bottom lip between his teeth and resuming the sweet, sensual kisses. Remus' hands left her body and she began to hear the telling sounds of him taking off his belt and unzipping his pants as he continued to kiss her.

Soon enough, Remus was completely naked save for his boxer briefs. "Now it's your turn," he growled in her ear before sucking on her earlobe for a few seconds. Hermione was practically arching off the bed, despite the fact that they had only been kissing. She was certain that her ribbony knickers were positively soaked.

First came the bow she had tied around herself, which he pulled apart with a single tug. He pulled one side of the ribbon so that the rest of it slid out from under her and dropped it onto the floor.

Next, his clever fingers slid under her back and undid the clasps of the bra, ensuring to trace and tickle her chest and arms as he slid it off. He planted many open-mouthed kisses over her breasts and nipples as they were revealed, and Hermione gasped in pleasure. Every part of her was suddenly so sensitive and every touch felt almost electric.

Finally, it was time for the knickers to come off. Remus bent down to kiss Hermione once more on the lips, a bit more roughly and passionately than before. "You are so beautiful," he growled against her mouth before grabbing at the front of her knickers and ripping them clean off. Hermione let out a startled gasp as he ripped them off, but it quickly turned into a moan as Remus pressed the ruined knickers to his nose and sniffed them. It was so sexy and animalistic that Hermione had to wonder if it was a werewolf thing or simply a man thing.

Tossing the knickers to the side, Remus began to remove his own underwear. His cock sprang free of its confines almost happily, and it looked harder than Hermione had ever seen it. She squirmed around in anticipation, trying her best to suppress the whines of need that were being ripped from her throat.

Remus was back on top of her in an instant and, without further ceremony, sheathed himself within her. He set up a much slower and more sensual pace than he usually did, and he seemed to be in no rush whatsoever to finish. He showered her in kisses and murmured compliments and dirty talk. Hermione was having a hard time remembering a time when she felt so loved and cherished.

This was the most romantic and intimate they had ever been with each other during sex, and Hermione had to admit that, though she loved a good hard fuck, slow and sensual could be just as amazing. Soon, the couple could feel themselves getting more frantic in their love-making, beginning to feel the beautiful torture of their impending releases.

Oh, Remus! Oh, harder…please, Remus. Oh!" Hermione moaned incoherently, her hand moving between them so that she could rub her clit in order to get just that extra bit of friction that would push her over the edge.

Remus had begun to grunt as well, his breathing growing ragged and thrusts starting to become disorganized and lacking rhythm. He angled his hips upwards so that he would be hitting Hermione's g-spot, and like magic, Hermione started screaming out her orgasm. Remus followed almost immediately after, the wonderful feeling of Hermione clenching around him causing him to fall over the edge with her.

Once the couple had come down from their high, Remus flopped down next to Hermione on the bed and pulled her into a sweaty, blissful embrace.

"Thank you for the present, Hermione. I absolutely loved it," Remus smiled into her hair.

Nuzzling up against Remus' chest, Hermione let out a little chuckle. "I'm so very glad. Happy Christmas, Remus."

"Happy Christmas, Hermione."

And it was a very happy Christmas, indeed. And a very, _very_ happy New Year as well…


End file.
